Piper capenseL.f.

wild pepper

WFO wfo-0000478760 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Piper capense, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-22 / obs. 204461497
Piper capense, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. b Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 183095460
Piper capense, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. c Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182987133
Piper capense, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 65617195
Piper capense, photographed by Di Turner
fig. e Di Turner, CC0 1.0 / obs. 47534234
Piper capense, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. f Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 48711758
Piper capense, photographed by Karen Eichholz
fig. g Karen Eichholz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 40857883
Piper capense, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182969775

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 28 botanical countries

Regions where Piper capense is native: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Comoros, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesDR CongoEquatorial GuineaEswatiniEthiopiaGabonGhanaGuineaGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaKwaZulu-NatalLiberiaMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabwe Comoros
Native distribution of Piper capense, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Comoros COM
DR Congo ZAI
Equatorial Guinea EQG
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
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
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
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.

Also published as 17 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.

  • Coccobryon capense (L.f.) Klotzsch
  • Cubeba capensis (L.f.) Miq.
  • Peperomia capensis (L.f.) G.Don
  • Piper bequaertii De Wild.
  • Piper bisexuale C.DC.
  • Piper brachyrhachis C.H.Wright
  • Piper brachyrhachis var. glabrum Balle
  • Piper emirnense Baker
  • Piper humblotii C.DC.
  • Piper molleri C.DC.
  • Piper pseudosylvaticum C.DC.
  • Piper sacleuxii C.DC.
  • Piper trichopodum C.DC.
  • Piper volkensii C.DC.
  • Piper volkensii f. crassiusculum Peter
  • Piper volkensii f. eucordatum Peter
  • Piper volkensii f. ovatum Peter

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.