Peperomia enervis C.DC. & F.Muell.

Piperaceae

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1891) The Victorian Naturalist 8: 109. Type: On Mont Bartle Frere; Stephen Johnson Lectotype: Queensland. Cook District: Mt Bartle Frere, 1890, S. Johnson (lecto (here designated): MEL!; isolecto: BRI!) [in Forster, P.I., 1993, Austrobaileya 4(1):101].

Succulent herb up to 30 cm tall. Stems erect becoming decumbent and rooting at the nodes, covered in short hairs.

Leaves fleshy, opposite or in whorls of 3; lamina 6-15 x 3-8 mm, glabrous; petioles about 1-3 mm long, glabrous. Both the upper and lower leaf blade surfaces glabrous. Internodes about 7-10 mm long.

Inflorescences terminal, 1.5-6 cm long; peduncle 5-8 mm long, glabrous; fertile axes 21-50 mm long, glabrous. Each flower sunken into axis and subtended by a shield-like bract about 0.5 x 0.5 mm. Stamens 2, one on each side of the ovary. Anthers about 0.25 mm long, pollen cream to tan in colour. Ovary rounded, green, 0.3-0.5 x 0.2-0.3 mm.

Fruit a drupe 1.5-4.5 cm long, sticky, 0.75-1 x 0.7-1 mm, papillate. Endosperm hard. Embryo tiny.

Features not available.

Occurs in NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from 100-1200 m. Grows on moss-covered rocks and tree trunks in shade of rainforest and notophyll vineforest.

Peperomia johnsonii DC., Annuaire de Conservatoire du Jardin Botaniques de Geneve : 286(1898), Type: In Australiae boreali-orientalis monte Bartle Frere, altitud. 5000 ped. (Stephen Johnson in h. Cand.) (holo: G-DC).