Species
+

Piper betle L.

Base, Betel Pepper, Betel leaf, Betelpfeffer (DE)

Climate known 51 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Betel is a species of flowering plant in the pepper family Piperaceae, native to Southeast Asia. It is an evergreen, dioecious vine, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins. Betel plants are cultivated for their leaves, which are most commonly used as flavoring for chewing areca nut in so-called betel quid, which is carcinogenic, contains a psychostimulant drug, and is associated with a wide range of serious health conditions.

Text from Wikipedia, “Betel”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Piperaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos +7
Wild records
164 in range· 79 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2220mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 259 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Piperaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2220 mm a year, wettest October at 259 mm, driest February at 90 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Artanthe hexagyna Miq.; Betela mastica Raf.; Chavica auriculata Miq.; Chavica betle (L.) Miq.; Chavica blumei Miq. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Piperaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1594 mm of 2220 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2220 mm a year, wettest October at 259 mm, driest February at 90 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2220 mm a year at the habitat, 1594 mm of it May to November. Wettest month October at 259 mm, driest February at 90 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1525 mm to 3289 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 20.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.6 °C, the absolute minimum 18.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.4 °C to 24.5 °C), warmest day 29.6 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 22 °C in Jan to 24 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2220 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 131 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 18.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°33.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)18.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–39RH 65–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 131 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 22–3028 / 23–3129 / 24–3230 / 26–3230 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 25–3129 / 25–3129 / 25–3128 / 25–3028 / 23–2927 / 22–29
Night °C22 / 13–2522 / 15–2523 / 16–2524 / 19–2624 / 20–2624 / 21–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2623 / 19–2523 / 17–2523 / 14–25
Rain mm139 / 17–36090 / 19–29491 / 28–252127 / 53–218195 / 122–275204 / 135–367231 / 146–437224 / 122–456244 / 147–394259 / 146–380237 / 69–395179 / 23–432
DLI29 / 24–3433 / 29–3837 / 34–4039 / 34–4236 / 32–3933 / 30–3632 / 29–3533 / 28–3733 / 28–3731 / 27–3429 / 24–3227 / 22–32
RH %66 / 60–7365 / 59–7165 / 59–7065 / 60–7066 / 62–7067 / 64–7167 / 63–7367 / 63–7367 / 64–7267 / 64–7268 / 62–7267 / 60–73

Each figure is the median across the 131 grid cells holding the 160 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1738:5632 (3.075, 101.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 131 distinct grid cells holding the 160 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1738:5632 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 3.00_101.875, lapse-corrected -207 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 25 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAndaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines· introduced: Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Fiji, Vanuatu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Cuba, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is.
Kew's description“climbing shrub or liana” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker14.13, 121.18 · in the densest population, 65 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 164 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 79 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 428 km away. 859 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 164 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Piper betlePiper betlePiper betlePiper betlePiper betlePiper betlePiper betlePiper betle

Photographs: (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Piper betle, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Piper Species: A Comprehensive Review on Their Phytochemistry, Biological Activities and Applications
Bahare Salehi, Zainul Amiruddin Zakaria, Rabin Gyawali, Salam A. Ibrahim (2019) · Molecules
Antioxidant activity of Piper betle L. leaf extract in vitro
Nabasree Dasgupta, Bratati De (2004) · Food Chemistry
Total Phenolic Compounds, Flavonoids, and Radical Scavenging Activity of 21 Selected Tropical Plants
Roheeyati Ashikin Mustafa, Azizah Abdul Hamid, Suhaila Mohamed, F. Abu Bakar (2009) · Journal of Food Science
In vitro antifungal activity of hydroxychavicol isolated from Piper betle L
Intzar Ali, Farrah G Khan, K. A. Suri, B. D. Gupta (2010) · Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials
The Crude Aqueous Extract of Piper betle L. and its Antibacterial Effect Towards Streptococcus mutans
T. Nalina, Z.H.A. Rahim (2007) · American journal of biochemistry & biotechnology/American journal of biochemistry and biotechnology
Antidiabetic activities of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Piper betle leaves in rats
L.S.R. Arambewela, L.D.A.M. Arawwawala, W.D. Ratnasooriya (2005) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Piper betle (L): Recent Review of Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties, Safety Profiles, and Commercial Applications
Ni Made Dwi Mara Widyani Nayaka, Maria Malida Vernandes Sasadara, Dwi Arymbhi Sanjaya, Putu Era Sandhi Kusuma Yuda (2021) · Molecules
Genotoxic and Non-genotoxic Effects of Betel Quid Ingredients on Oral Mucosal Fibroblasts in vitro
Jiiang‐Huei Jeng, Min‐Liang Kuo, L.J. Hahn, Mark Yen‐Ping Kuo (1994) · Journal of Dental Research
Antibacterial activities of ethanol extracts of Philippine medicinal plants against multidrug-resistant bacteria
Demetrio L. Valle, Jeannie I. Andrade, Juliana Janet M. Puzon, Esperanza C. Cabrera (2015) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Piper 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 72 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.