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Piper ponapense C.DC.

Pepper

Piperaceae · Caroline Is.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
25.7°C
Jul at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jan, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,757mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–38DLI
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.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,900 mm of 4,065 mm) takes 8 months, January and April to October. Mean temperature moves 0.3 °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

4,065 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,900 mm of it January and April to October. Wettest month July at 435 mm, driest month February at 264 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 3,645 mm to 5,143 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,757 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 4,065 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: 31 to 38 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 30, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 25.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 25.1 °C to 25.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.9 °C in May and November (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 25.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, July, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 66% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

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

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Piper ponapense through the yearWarmest months January, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 25.7 °C; 4,065 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 31–38RH 64–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 13 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 27–2827 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–28
Night °C26 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–26
Rain mm342 / 271–376264 / 193–284297 / 216–370338 / 223–497325 / 308–501428 / 322–454435 / 339–463362 / 346–427353 / 317–436317 / 303–446303 / 288–423301 / 286–434
DLI33 / 32–3336 / 35–3638 / 36–3937 / 35–3935 / 33–3633 / 32–3333 / 33–3434 / 34–3535 / 35–3634 / 33–3532 / 31–3231 / 30–31
RH %65 / 64–6764 / 64–6765 / 63–6866 / 65–6866 / 65–6966 / 65–6966 / 65–6866 / 64–6865 / 64–6866 / 65–6866 / 65–6966 / 64–68

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 20% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 24.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 25.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.3 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 13 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (14 records in those cells; 2 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 1663:6766 (6.825, 158.325). 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 13 distinct grid cells holding 14 of the 16 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1663:6766 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 20% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.00_158.125, lapse-corrected +26 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 34 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.
NativeCaroline Is. · 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 marker6.926, 158.214 · in the densest population, 23 records (55% of those in range)
Kew's description“wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 42 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 14 of them in the land cells it reads, of 16 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 36 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 26 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 of the 42 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Ixora casei Ixora casei Giant red Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Cycas micronesica Cycas micronesica Cycad Photo: CC BY, GabrielSpathoglottis carolinensis Spathoglottis carolinensis Caroline ground orchid Photo: CC BY-SA, Thibaud AronsonDendrobium gouldii Dendrobium gouldii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, bukoba_steveHeterospathe elata Heterospathe elata Sagisi palm Photo: CC BY, GabrielPtychosperma salomonense Ptychosperma salomonense Arecaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, David J. Stang

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 Piper kusaiense; Piper palauense. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Piperaceae
Described by
C.DC.
Native to
Caroline Is.
Wild records
42 in range · 36 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.00_158.125, lapse-corrected +26 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (20% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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