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Piper
| Habit : | Shrubs, rarely herbs or trees, with swollen nodes, often grandular and aromatic, testa thin, albumen hard. | | Leaves : | Entire, often unequal-sided; stipules various.
| | Spikes : | Each in the axil of a bract with or without lateral oracteoles; bracts peltate, or copular and adnate to the rachis, sometimes decurrent on the rachis with or without raised margins; bracteoles if present forming low ridges on each side of the flower, or connate in a semilunar form. Perianth 0. Stamens 1-4, rarely more, filaments short; anthers 2-celled, cells often confluent by dehiscence. Oxary 1-celled; style conic beaked or 0, stigmas 2-5; ovule solitary, erect.
| | Flowers : | Very minute, dioecious, very rarely 2-sexual. | | Fruits : | Berry ovoid or globose. Seed usually globose. |
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