Piper hederaceum

Piper hederaceum, commonly known as the giant pepper vine, is a species of plants in the pepper family Piperaceae. It is a twining climber with a stem diameter up to 15 cm (5.9 in) which is endemic to eastern Australia, found from Lockhart River, Queensland, to Bermagui, New South Wales. It inhabits tropical, subtropical and temperate rainforest at altitudes from sea level to about 1,200 m (3,900 ft).^[4][5][6]

Giant pepper vine
In fruit at the Cairns Botanic Gardens, December 2022
Conservation status
Least Concern (NCA)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Magnoliids
Order:	Piperales
Family:	Piperaceae
Genus:	Piper
Species:	P. hederaceum
Binomial name
Piper hederaceum (Miq.) C.DC.[2][3]
Synonyms[3]
Cubeba hederacea Miq.

Taxonomy

This species was first described as Cubeba hederacea in 1845 by Dutch botanist Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel, who published his description in The London Journal of Botany.^[7] It was subsequently transferred to Piper hederaceum in 1869 by the Swiss botanist Anne Casimir Pyramus de Candolle, writing in the book Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.^[8]

Infraspecies

Two varieties are recognised:^[3]

• Piper hederaceum var. hederaceum ^[5]
• Piper hederaceum var. longiorispicum^[6]

Conservation

This species is listed as least concern under the Queensland Government's Nature Conservation Act.^[1] As of January 2025^[update], it has not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Gallery

• 
• 
• 
•