Piperaceae

The Piperaceae, also known as the pepper family, are a large family of flowering plants. The group contains roughly 3,600 currently accepted species in 13 genera. The vast majority of peppers can be found within the two main genera: Piper (2000 species) and Peperomia (1600 species).

Members of the Piperaceae may be small trees, shrubs, or herbs. The distribution of this group is best described as pantropical.

The best-known species is Piper nigrum, which yields most peppercorns that are used as spices, including black pepper, although its relatives in the family include many other spices.

Etymology

The name Piperaceae is likely derived from the Sanskrit term pippali, which was used to describe long peppers (like those of Piper longum).

Taxonomy

The APG III system of 2009 recognizes this family, and assigns it to the order Piperales in the unranked clade magnoliids. The family consists of five genera: Piper, Peperomia, Zippelia, Manekia, and Verhuellia. The previously recognised Pacific genus Macropiper, was recently merged into Piper. A tentative cladogram showing relationships based on Wanke et al. (2007) is shown below. This phylogeny was based on 6000 basepairs of chloroplast DNA. Only recently has it become clear that Verhuellia is sister to the other four genera in the family.