Piper bantamense (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Piper bantamense Blume

Family: Piperaceae

Synonyms

Piper attenuatum auct., non Miquel.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: cabe utan bebau (Ambon), bleng, oyod tepel (Javanese).

Distribution

Indonesia (Kalimantan, Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands and the Moluccas).

Uses

Potable water runs from the stem when cut. Clothes are soaked in an infusion of the crushed, dried bark to give them a pleasant scent. A poultice of the bark, mixed with ginger, clove and nutmeg can be applied to muscles of arms and legs that are cramped due to cold. Fresh leaves, mixed with some water, have been used to relieve headache.

Observations

A dioecious, woody climber up to 15 m long. Leaves arranged spirally; petiole 1-5 cm long; blade oblong-elliptical to ovate-elliptical, 6-14 cm × 2.5-8 cm, base cordate to cuneate, apex acutely acuminate, palmately veined, glabrous or sparsely hairy below. Flowers in solitary spikes 5-20 cm long (up to 26 cm long in fruit); rachis of male spike glabrous, with bracts 1.5-3 mm long; rachis of female spike hairy with bracts 3-4 mm long; male flower with (2-)3(-4) stamens; female flower with 3-4 stigmas. Fruit a broadly ellipsoid to almost globose berry, 4-5 mm long. P. bantamense is found in forest and thickets, up to 350 m altitude. Because of a lack of reliable taxonomic information, there is some doubt whether the information given under "Uses" does indeed refer to P. bantamense .

Selected sources

6, 30.

Authors

M.S.M. Sosef