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Piper peltatum; photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2021-01-22

Piper peltatum L.

Cowheel Bush; Pariparoba; Pei huxupa; Monkey's Hand

Piperaceae · Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +31 · listed by its family as a tropical foliage plant

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Piper peltatum, photograph (c) Laurimar Sepulveda, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper peltatum, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper peltatum, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper peltatum, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper peltatum, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper peltatum, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) 68 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
20.9°C
Record low 18.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,691mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–35DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Piper peltatum, also known as Pothomorphe peltatum, is a shrub of the drier Neotropics in the black pepper family Piperaceae. It grows to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height and has peltate leaves 18 cm (7.1 in) long and about 15 cm (5.9 in) wide. The inflorescences are vertical white spikes with multitudes of tiny flowers.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Piper peltatum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the family Piperaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or rhizomatous geophyte”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,036 mm of 2,639 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 0.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,639 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,036 mm of it April to November. Wettest month May at 299 mm, driest month February at 125 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,659 mm to 4,495 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,691 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,639 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 20.9 °C, the absolute minimum 18.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 17.1 °C to 23.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.4 °C in March and April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +78 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the family Piperaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or rhizomatous geophyte”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Piper peltatum through the yearWarmest months February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September and October, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 21.6 °C; 2,639 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°32.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER18.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 28–35RH 65–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 571 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–3028 / 25–3128 / 25–3128 / 25–3128 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3128 / 25–3128 / 25–3027 / 24–3027 / 24–30
Night °C22 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 17–24
Rain mm129 / 32–352125 / 22–331157 / 37–332204 / 76–443299 / 114–511268 / 80–514235 / 68–473237 / 73–477254 / 97–496277 / 150–518262 / 126–444192 / 74–377
DLI31 / 24–3532 / 27–3735 / 28–4033 / 26–4230 / 24–4128 / 23–4129 / 24–4132 / 25–4032 / 26–3831 / 24–3529 / 23–3329 / 23–33
RH %66 / 59–7165 / 57–7165 / 58–7167 / 60–7268 / 63–7369 / 64–7468 / 62–7368 / 61–7368 / 62–7369 / 64–7469 / 64–7368 / 62–72
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 571 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (791 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1433:2122 (18.325, -73.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 571 distinct grid cells holding 791 of the 794 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1433:2122 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.50_-73.750, lapse-corrected +78 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 281 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil North, Brazil South · introduced: Galápagos · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker9.102, -79.65 · in the densest population, 621 records (40% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1540 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 791 of them in the land cells it reads, of 794 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 848 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 481 km away. 79 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 746 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1540 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Piper peltatum, photograph 1did not loadPiper peltatum, photograph 2did not loadPiper peltatum, photograph 3did not loadPiper peltatum, photograph 4did not loadPiper peltatum, photograph 5did not loadPiper peltatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Laurimar Sepulveda, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Sauvagesia erecta Sauvagesia erecta Creole tea Photo: CC BY, Justin PonderSolanum jamaicense Solanum jamaicense Jamaican nightshade Photo: CC0, author not statedAsplenium serratum Asplenium serratum Wild birdnest fern Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovCostus guanaiensis Costus guanaiensis Costaceae Photo: CC BY, Marcio Santos FerreiraCalathea lutea Calathea lutea Cuban Cigar Plant Photo: CC BY, Stevie SteeleEpiscia cupreata Episcia cupreata Flame violet Photo: CC BY, Diogo Luiz

Other Piper 44 in the reference

Piper aduncum Piper aduncum Spiked pepper Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezPiper amalago Piper amalago Wall Purslane Photo: CC BY, avocatPiper arboreum Piper arboreum Tree pepper Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizPiper artanthe Piper artanthe Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribePiper auritum Piper auritum Vera Cruz pepper Photo: CC BY, T R Shankar RamanPiper barbatum Piper barbatum Piperaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPiper betle Piper betle Betel pepper Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu)Piper borbonense Piper borbonense Madagascan Wild Pepper Photo: CC BY, yellowplantPiper bredemeyeri Piper bredemeyeri Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Arthur de Jesús Chavarría PérezPiper capense Piper capense African long pepper Photo: CC BY, Shaun SwanepoelPiper cernuum Piper cernuum Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens RiellaPiper consanguineum Piper consanguineum Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Guillaume Delaitre all 45 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Heckeria peltata; Heckeria scutata; Heckeria speciosa; Lepianthes peltata; Peperidia peltata and 31 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Piperaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +30
Wild records
1540 in range · 848 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 22 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 6 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.50_-73.750, lapse-corrected +78 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 149 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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