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Piper tuberculatum; photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2020-12-19

Piper tuberculatum Jacq.

Monkey pepper

Piperaceae · Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +26 · listed by its family as a tropical foliage plant

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Piper tuberculatum, photograph (c) Gabriel M. Rolim, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper tuberculatum, photograph (c) Gabriel M. Rolim, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper tuberculatum, photograph (c) Gabriel M. Rolim, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper tuberculatum, photograph (c) Gabriel M. Rolim, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper tuberculatum, photograph (c) Gabriel M. Rolim, some rights reserved (CC BY)Piper tuberculatum, photograph (c) Gabriel M. Rolim, some rights reserved (CC BY) 70 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
21.4°C
Dec at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Mar and Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,917mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–36DLI
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
A sharp rainy season, May to October (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Cultivation

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

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,311 mm of 1,850 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 1.2 °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. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,850 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,311 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 250 mm, driest month February at 55 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,107 mm to 3,262 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,917 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,850 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: 30 to 36 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.4 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range 17.0 °C to 23.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.8 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 21.4 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, December, 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 whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% 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.

Group. Listed under the family Piperaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “shrub or tree”, “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 tuberculatum through the yearWarmest months March and April, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low 21.4 °C; 1,850 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–36RH 61–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 202 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 °C29 / 25–3229 / 26–3230 / 27–3330 / 27–3329 / 26–3329 / 26–3129 / 25–3129 / 26–3229 / 26–3229 / 25–3128 / 25–3029 / 25–30
Night °C22 / 16–2422 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 18–2423 / 19–2522 / 18–2522 / 18–2422 / 18–2423 / 19–2422 / 19–2422 / 18–2421 / 17–24
Rain mm58 / 8–24555 / 8–24959 / 7–286111 / 22–331187 / 26–383212 / 34–487200 / 19–444231 / 17–421250 / 40–456231 / 90–425161 / 23–31495 / 12–242
DLI32 / 25–3635 / 29–3836 / 30–4335 / 28–4432 / 25–4232 / 24–3733 / 26–3834 / 28–3832 / 28–3931 / 26–3831 / 25–3630 / 24–34
RH %63 / 55–6862 / 54–6861 / 55–6862 / 56–7065 / 57–7167 / 57–7266 / 54–7166 / 52–7167 / 54–7267 / 59–7166 / 60–7164 / 58–70

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1149 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 14.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.5 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 202 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (236 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1713:2108 (4.325, -74.575). 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 202 distinct grid cells holding 236 of the 237 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1713:2108 (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 4.50_-74.375, lapse-corrected -1149 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 641 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, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad-Tobago, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South · 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 marker11.764, -85.864 · in the densest population, 147 records (12% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1228 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 236 of them in the land cells it reads, of 237 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1049 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 991 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 1228 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 tuberculatum, photograph 1did not loadPiper tuberculatum, photograph 2did not loadPiper tuberculatum, photograph 3did not loadPiper tuberculatum, photograph 4did not loadPiper tuberculatum, photograph 5did not loadPiper tuberculatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Gabriel M. Rolim, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Piper marginatum Piper marginatum Marigold pepper Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezAndira inermis Andira inermis Cabbagebark tree Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCordia alliodora Cordia alliodora Cypre Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezHymenaea courbaril Hymenaea courbaril Stinking toe tree Photo: CC BY, The Great WalterHyptis brevipes Hyptis brevipes Lesser roundweed Photo: CC BY, James HardeeCalopogonium mucunoides Calopogonium mucunoides Calopo Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández

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 Artanthe beecheyana; Artanthe decurrens; Artanthe tuberculata; Artanthe tuberculata var. brevispicata; Piper acutifolium and 21 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Piper macrourum: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Piperaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +25
Wild records
1228 in range · 1049 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; 19 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 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 4.50_-74.375, lapse-corrected -1149 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1149 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 164 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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