Peperomia rotundifolia(L.) Kunth

yerba linda

WFO wfo-0000479388 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Peperomia rotundifolia, photographed by William G. Borges
fig. a William G. Borges, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-24 / obs. 190376613
Peperomia rotundifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. b Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173664881
Peperomia rotundifolia, photographed by Juan Cruzado Cortés
fig. c Juan Cruzado Cortés, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 61727639
Peperomia rotundifolia, photographed by Letizia Weichgrebe
fig. d Letizia Weichgrebe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 52792623
Peperomia rotundifolia, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. e Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 2534744
Peperomia rotundifolia, photographed by Diogo Luiz
fig. f Diogo Luiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 51767624
Peperomia rotundifolia, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. g Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 914616
Peperomia rotundifolia, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. h Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188410576

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 33 botanical countries

Regions where Peperomia rotundifolia is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Peperomia rotundifolia, 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 Northeast AGE 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
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 469 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.1 °C 18.5 °C 22.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.1 °C 28.6 °C 32.5 °C
Annual rainfall 1,414 mm 2,166 mm 4,449 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 120 mm 292 mm 675 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 469 research-grade observations of Peperomia rotundifolia 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 32 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.

  • Acrocarpidium brevipes Benth.
  • Acrocarpidium guayaquillense Miq.
  • Acrocarpidium mexicanum Miq.
  • Acrocarpidium nummularifolium f. pilosior Miq.
  • Acrocarpidium nummularifolium var. obcordatum Miq.
  • Acrocarpidium nummulariifolium (Sw.) Miq.
  • Acrocarpidium rotundifolium (L.) Miq.
  • Peperomia bartlettii C.DC.
  • Peperomia brevipes (Benth.) C.DC.
  • Peperomia delicatissima var. venusta Trel.
  • Peperomia guayaquilensis (Miq.) C.DC.
  • Peperomia koepperi Trel.
  • Peperomia lanjouwii Yunck.
  • Peperomia mararyna C.DC.
  • Peperomia metapalcoensis C.DC.
  • Peperomia nummulariifolia (Sw.) Kunth
  • Peperomia nummulariifolia var. obcordata (Miq.) C.DC.
  • Peperomia nummulariifolia var. pubescens C.DC.
  • Peperomia rotundifolia Schltdl. & Cham.
  • Peperomia rotundifolia f. obovata C.DC.
  • Peperomia rotundifolia f. ovata Dahlst.
  • Peperomia rotundifolia f. pubescens (C.DC.) Dahlst.
  • Peperomia rotundifolia var. glabrilimba C.DC.
  • Peperomia rotundifolia var. nummulariifolia (Kunth) Stehlé

and 8 more.

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.