Peperomia retusaA.Dietr.

WFO wfo-0000477807 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Peperomia retusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-03-12 / obs. 183110964
Peperomia retusa, photographed by Tim Kirsten
fig. b Tim Kirsten, CC0 1.0 / obs. 181800361
Peperomia retusa, photographed by Jeremy Gilmore
fig. c Jeremy Gilmore, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175596440
Peperomia retusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 165803313
Peperomia retusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 165803557
Peperomia retusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 165805198
Peperomia retusa, photographed by De Waal Hugo
fig. g De Waal Hugo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 138562462
Peperomia retusa, photographed by De Waal Hugo
fig. h De Waal Hugo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 138563901

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 23 botanical countries

Regions where Peperomia retusa is native: Burundi, Cabinda, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe BurundiCabindaCameroonCape ProvincesDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaKwaZulu-NatalLiberiaMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSierra LeoneTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Peperomia retusa, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Burundi BUR AFRICA
Cabinda CAB
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Sierra Leone SIE
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 385 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.9 °C 7.9 °C 11.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.8 °C 23.3 °C 27.0 °C
Annual rainfall 560 mm 1,031 mm 1,308 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 37 mm 93 mm 191 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 385 research-grade observations of Peperomia retusa 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.

Also published as 21 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.

  • Peperomia bachmannii C.DC.
  • Peperomia bueana C.DC.
  • Peperomia gracilipetiolata De Wild.
  • Peperomia mannii Hook.f.
  • Peperomia mannii var. fernandopoana C.DC.
  • Peperomia rehmannii C.DC.
  • Peperomia retusa var. alternifolia C.DC.
  • Peperomia retusa var. bachmannii (DC.) Düll
  • Peperomia retusa var. ciliolata C.DC.
  • Peperomia retusa var. mannii (Hook.f.) Düll
  • Peperomia retusa var. parvifolia C.DC.
  • Peperomia subdichotoma De Wild.
  • Peperomia tenuispica C.DC.
  • Peperomia ukingensis Engl.
  • Peperomia ulugurensis Engl.
  • Peperomia ulugurensis var. acutifolia Balle
  • Peperomia ulugurensis var. diversifolia Balle
  • Peperomia ulugurensis var. ukingensis (Engl.) Balle
  • Peperomia usambarensis Engl.
  • Peperomia wilmsii C.DC.
  • Piper retusum L.f.

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. 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.