Black pepper

:For other types of pepper, see the disambiguation page pepper.

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Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering plant in the family Piperaceae, native to southern India and Sri Lanka, and extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions for its fruit, used as a spice and seasoning. It is a perennial woody vine growing to 4 m tall on supporting trees or shrubs, and also spreading, rooting readily where trailing stems touch the ground. The leaves are alternate, entire, 5-10 cm long and 3-6 cm broad. The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes 4-8 cm long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening to 7-15 cm as the fruit matures. The fruit is a small drupe 5 mm diameter, dark red when fully mature, containing a single seed.

Related Topics:
Flowering plant - Piperaceae - India - Sri Lanka - Fruit - Spice - Seasoning - Perennial - Woody - Vine - Tree - Shrub - Root - Leaves - Flower - Drupe - Seed

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