Marigold pepper

Piper marginatum, the marigold pepper or anisillo, is an aromatic shrub or robust herb in the Piperaceae growing 1–3 m tall, with distinctly swollen, jointed nodes and slender, more or less zigzag stems. Leaves are alternate, simple, broadly ovate to nearly orbicular, 8–18 cm long, with a deeply cordate base, an acuminate apex, entire margins, and 5–9 palmate-pinnate veins arising from near the base; the upper surface is dark green and the lower paler, often finely pubescent, and the whole leaf is strongly aromatic of anise or sassafras when crushed. The petiole is winged at the base and sheaths the stem. Inflorescences are slender, erect, white to cream-coloured spikes 5–15 cm long borne opposite the leaves, the densely packed minute flowers lacking a perianth and each subtended by a peltate bract. Fruits are small, fleshy, one-seeded drupes embedded in the rachis. It grows in moist, shaded understorey of Amazonian, Caribbean, and Central American rainforests.