Peperomia pellucida(L.) Kunth

man to man

WFO wfo-0000477971 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Peperomia pellucida, photographed by Maria Janeiro
fig. a Maria Janeiro, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-29 / obs. 191859991

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 68 botanical countries

Regions where Peperomia pellucida is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, DR Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. AngolaBeninBurkinaBurundiCameroonCentral African RepublicCongoDR CongoGabonGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKenyaLiberiaMadagascarMozambiqueNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaFloridaGeorgiaLouisianaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSouthwest CaribbeanSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Netherlands AntillesVenezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Peperomia pellucida, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northwest AGW SOUTHERN AMERICA
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Southwest Caribbean SWC
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Georgia GEO
Louisiana LOU
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 65 in flower of 132 examined

Proportion of examined Peperomia pellucida in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 1 4 too few examined
Feb 3 3 too few examined
Mar 4 6 67% 30% to 90%
Apr 7 14 50% 27% to 73%
May 7 8 88% 53% to 98%
Jun 5 10 50% 24% to 76%
Jul 6 10 60% 31% to 83%
Aug 7 22 32% 16% to 53%
Sep 6 9 67% 35% to 88%
Oct 6 9 67% 35% to 88%
Nov 10 27 37% 22% to 56%
Dec 3 10 30% 11% to 60%

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Peperomia pellucida observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 65 of 132 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 2 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,997 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.5 °C 22.2 °C 24.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.8 °C 30.7 °C 34.9 °C
Annual rainfall 1,352 mm 2,381 mm 3,774 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 26 mm 112 mm 548 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,997 research-grade observations of Peperomia pellucida that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 19 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Micropiper pellucidum (L.) Miq.
  • Micropiper tenellum Klotzsch ex Miq.
  • Peperomia concinna (Haw.) A.Dietr.
  • Peperomia ephemera Ekman
  • Peperomia knoblecheriana Schott
  • Peperomia nana C.DC.
  • Peperomia oleracea Poepp. ex Miq.
  • Peperomia pellucida var. minor Miq.
  • Peperomia pellucida var. pygmaea Willd. ex Miq.
  • Peperomia praetenuis Trel.
  • Peperomia translucens Trel.
  • Peperomia triadophylla Peter
  • Peperomia vogelii Miq.
  • Peperomia yapensis C.DC.
  • Piper concinnum Haw.
  • Piper freirifolium Hochst. ex A.Rich.
  • Piper pellucidum L.
  • Piper scandens Poepp. ex Miq.
  • Verhuellia knoblocheriana C.DC.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.