Piper siriboa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Piper siriboa L.

Family: Piperaceae

Synonyms

Chavica siriboa (L.) Miquel, Piper betle L. var. siriboa (L.) C. DC.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: amu malaka (Seram), bido (Halmahera), kau (Leti). Probably also often the same names as for betel pepper ( Piper betle L.).

Distribution

Supposedly a native of Indonesia (Sunda Islands) but probably a species raised in cultivation and nowhere wild.

Uses

The fruiting spikes or young leaves are used like betel pepper leaves for chewing. The spikes have to be plucked before they are fully ripe.

Observations

A tall dioecious climber with thickened nodes, puberulous when young. Leaves alternate; petiole 2-5.5 cm long; blade ovate, 12-16 cm × 8-12 cm, cordate at base, short-acuminate at apex, with 3 pairs of arcuate veins from the base and one pair from the midrib 1-3 cm above the base, dark green, on drying turning darker than betel pepper. Inflorescence a pendulous spike, opposite a leaf; peduncle 3-7 cm long; spike 8-10 cm long, enlarging to 17 cm × 7 mm in fruit; flowers unisexual. Fruit a berry, concrescent into the fleshy spike. Sometimes P. siriboa is considered synonymous with Piper betle L.

Selected sources

30, 31.

Authors

M.S.M. Sosef