Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Piper interruptum Opiz


Slender Vine
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Female flowers. © CSIRO
Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Male flowers. © CSIRO
Leaves and inflorescences. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Opiz, P.M. inPresl (1828) Reliq. Haenk. 1: 157. Type: Philippines, Luzon, 1792, T. Haenke s. n. Holo: PR.

Stem

A slender vine not exceeding a stem diameter of 2 cm.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 8-12 x 3.5-6.5 cm, petioles about 1-1.5 cm long. Stipules caducous, about 7-9 mm long, sheathing the terminal bud.

Flowers

Female flowers: Inflorescence leaf-opposed, a dense spike with the flowers arranged in two spiralling lines on the spike (double helix). Each flower small, about 0.5 mm diam., consisting mainly of a comparatively large fleshy bract. Staminodes very small, not or scarcely visible with a lens. Stigma +/- sessile, 1-4 armed, resembling a starfish (Asteroidea).

Fruit

Infructescence about 7-9 cm long. Individual fruits globular, about 3.5-4 mm diam., sessile. Seeds globular, about 2.5-3 mm diam. Embryo cylindrical, about 1 mm long, enclosed in a broadly conical structure.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 750 m. Grows in lowland and upland rain forest. Also occurs in New Guinea and other parts of Malesia.

Synonyms
Piper triandrum F. Muell., Fragmenta 5: 197(1866), Type: Queensland, Mackays River, J. Dallachy. Holo: MEL.
RFK Code
2672
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