Piper decumanum L. Piperaceae

Abstract

Steffensia schlechtendalii Kunth Local Names Philippines: Lunas (Bisaya), Lunas bagon tapol (Minanubu) Botany and Ecology Large branchlet woody climbers, dioecious, completely glabrous lianas (Figs. 1 and 2). Leaves alternate, deciduous, ovate, often rugose lamina with acute to bluntly acuminate apex, asymmetrically cordate to auriculate base, and usually shorter than the auricular base, sheathing at the lower half petioles; stipules large, persistent; petiole 2-7 cm long; leaf blades more than 25 cm long without a unilateral lobule, usually green in adaxial and purplish-red in abaxial, venation palmate-pinnate. Apex of petiole never with an ant-sac. Stem green, red-brown, or dark purple and looks jointed due to the swollen nodes, young stem 1-3 cm in diameter, and >3 cm in diameter when mature. Female spikes more than 25 cm long but not exceeding 1 cm in diameter, even in fruit. Fruitlets free but crowded, 1-1.5 mm diameter. Stigmas 2 (or 3), about as wide as long, borne on a tapering style ca. 1 mm long. P. decumanum is native to Asia-Tropical. The distribution in Philippine Islands, Celebes, Moluccas, and New Guinea was recorded by Chew during the Royal Society Expedition to the Solomon Islands in 1965 (Chew 1972). P. decumanum