Piper arboreum

Piper arboreum is an evergreen shrub to small tree in the family Piperaceae widely distributed across the Neotropics, from Mexico and the Caribbean south through Central America and most of tropical South America to Paraguay and northern Argentina. It grows 2-8 m tall, with slender, jointed, often somewhat zigzag stems bearing alternate, asymmetric, ovate to elliptic-lanceolate leaves 10-25 cm long that are glossy dark green above and have an aromatic, peppery scent when crushed. The minute, apetalous flowers are densely packed into slender, pendulous to erect, whitish to pale yellowish-green spikes 6-15 cm long borne opposite the leaves. Tiny one-seeded drupes ripen along the rachis and are dispersed largely by bats. The species is a common understorey component of moist lowland and lower-montane forest and is frequent along forest edges and in regrowth.