Acorn peperomia

Peperomia tetraphylla, the acorn peperomia or four-leaved peperomia, is a small, succulent, perennial epiphytic or terrestrial herb of the Piperaceae with a wide pantropical and warm-temperate distribution. Stems are slender, slightly fleshy, creeping at the base and then ascending to 10-30 cm tall, often rooting at the lower nodes and turning reddish in strong light. The most distinctive feature is the whorled arrangement of leaves, with four (occasionally three) leaves at each node, giving the plant its specific epithet. Leaves are small, fleshy, broadly elliptic to obovate or almost orbicular, 6-15 mm long and 4-12 mm wide, entire, glabrous, with three to five faint palmate veins from the rounded base and a rounded to slightly notched apex; petioles are short. The inflorescences are slender, terminal or axillary, erect spikes 2-5 cm long bearing many minute, sessile, bisexual flowers tightly arranged along a fleshy rachis; each flower lacks perianth and consists of two stamens and a single carpel subtended by a small peltate bract. Fruits are tiny, ovoid, sticky drupelets 0.5-1 mm long. The species grows on mossy rocks, tree trunks and humus-rich forest floor in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide.