Piperaceae
Piper

Piper betle L.

First published in Sp. Pl.: 28 (1753)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Indo-China to Malesia. It is a climbing shrub and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.

Descriptions

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

Piperaceae, Bernard Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1996

Morphology General Habit
Climbing shrub with glabrous stems producing adventitious roots at the nodes.
Morphology Leaves
Leaves ovate or rounded ovate, 8–18 cm. long, 6–10 cm. wide, narrowly and sharply acuminate at the apex, cordate or subcordate and mostly asymmetric at the base, petiole 2–4 cm. long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Spikes cream, 2 cm. long; stamens 2; stigmas 4–5; bracts rounded to obovate, sessile, central.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Fruits sessile, often coalescing.
[FTEA]

Common Names

English
Betel

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Living Collection Database

    • Common Names from Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com/

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images