Peperomia tetraphylla Hook. & Arn.

Piperaceae

Hooker, W.J. & Arnott, G.A.Walker (1832) The Botany of Captain Beechey's Voyage 3: 97. Type: Society Island, Forster (holo: BM, fide H.Huber, Rev. Handb. Fl. Ceylon 6: 292 (1987), nut n.v. by author).

Succulent herb up to 10 cm tall. Stems erect, becoming decumbent and rooting at the nodes, glabrous to densely puberulous; internodes up to 25 mm long.

Leaves very succulent, in whorls of 4, petiolate; lamina ovate-rhomboidal to orbicular, 10-14 x 7-9 mm, glabrous above, with sparse trichomes below when young, secondary veins obscure; petiole 7-10 mm long with sparse trichomes.

Spikes terminal and up to 43 mm long, solitary; peduncle 7-8 mm long and sparsely covered in trichomes to shortly pubescent; fertile axes 10-35 mm long, densely hispid. Flowers deeply sunken into axis, spaced 0.6-1 mm apart; floral bracts rounded, 0.3-0.5 long and wide; ovary rounded, 0.4-0.6 x 0.3-0.5 mm.

Drupes sticky, smooth, ca. 1 x 0.6 mm.

Features not available.

Occurs in NEQ, CEQ and southwards to south eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range from 180-1200 m. Grows on moss-covered rocks and especially on tree trunks in the shade of rainforest, vineforest, sclerophyll forest, Eucalypt forest and micriphyll moss/fern thicket. Widely distributed in Africa, Malesia, Melanesia, New Guinea to Lord Howe Island.

Natural hybrids between Peperomia. blanda and P. tetraphylla are known from Qld.

Piper tetraphyllum G.Forst., Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus : 5(1786). Peperomia affinis Domin ex F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 24(5): 222(1910), Type: Atherton, J.F. Bailey; Tambourine Mountain, Dr. Karl Domin. Peperomia aemula (Endl.) Endl., Annalen des Wiener Museums der Naturgeschichte 1: 164, No. 836(1836). Piper reflexum L.f., Supplementum Plantarum : 91(1782). Piper reflexa P.I.Forst., Austrobaileya 4(1): 99(1993). Peperomia reflexa f. norfolkensis Miq., Systema Piperacearum : 172(1843), Type: Norfolk Is., F.L.Bauer; holo: B probably destroyed; iso: K. Piper aemulum Endl., Prodromus Florae Norfolkicae : 36(1833), Type: Crescit in insula Norfolk, mense Octobri florens. (Ferd. Bauer.). Peperomia reflexa var. aemula (Endl.) C.DC., Prodromus 16(1): 451(1869).