Piperales
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What is Piperales?
Piperales is an order of flowering plants with 17 genera and 4,170 species across 3 families. Piperales, along with Laurales, Magnoliales, and Canellales, belong to the magnoliid clade, an early branch in the angiosperm evolutionary tree.
Piperales are characteristically herbaceous and often have swollen leaf nodes. Reproduction occurs mainly through seeds, but vegetative propagation can occur through rhizome fragmentation. The drupe is the main fruit type in the pepper family, while dry fruits characterize the other families.
The largest family in Piperales is Piperaceae, with most species in the genera Peperomia and Piper. Other families include Saururaceae and Aristolochiaceae. Many species are cultivated ornamentals, and Piper nigrum is the source of black pepper.
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Which types of plants are included in the Piperales order?
The Piperales order is a group of flowering plants that contains 17 genera and 4,170 species across 3 families.
These families include:
* Piperaceae: A family of tropical plants with aromatic herbage, minute naked spicate flowers and a one-celled ovary.
* Saururaceae: A family of perennial herbs having small flowers without a perianth in terminal spikes and with an ovary of several separate carpels.
* Ornamental plants such as lizard’s tail (Saururus cernuus), Peperomia species, Anemopsis, Houttuynia, wild ginger (Asarum), and vining Aristolochia species.2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Where are plants from the Piperales order usually found?
Plants from the order Piperales consist of 3 families, 17 genera, and 4,170 species. They form the magnoliid clade along with the orders Laurales, Magnoliales, and Canellales.
Piperales are characteristically herbaceous and often have swollen leaf nodes. Reproduction by seeds is the main method of species dispersal, but fragmentation of rhizomes also occurs. The plants are widely distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics and grow as herbs, vines, shrubs, and trees. Many species are cultivated ornamentals.
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What are some common characteristics of Piperales plants?
Plants in the order Piperales share traits with monocotyledons, such as scattered vascular bundles in their stems and flower parts in multiples of three. While some are woody, they are typically herbaceous and have swollen leaf nodes.
Seeds are the primary means of dispersal, but some species propagate vegetatively through rhizome fragmentation. The drupe is the main fruit type in the pepper family (Piperaceae), while dry fruits are found in the other four families. Many species are cultivated as ornamentals, including wild ginger (Asarum) and Dutchman's pipe (Aristolochia).
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How are Piperales plants important to people or ecosystems?
Piperales encompasses 17 genera and 4,170 species. This order is commercially significant, as Piper nigrum is the source of black and white pepper. Many species serve as cultivated ornamentals, such as lizard’s tail, Peperomia, and wild ginger. Piper species are used in food, beverages, and medicine as spices and seasonings. In the Pacific Islands, the root of P. methysticum is used to make a ceremonial drink with narcotic and sedative effects. Reproduction by seeds is the main method of species dispersal in Piperales.
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Can you name some well-known plants in the Piperales order and explain their uses?
The Piperales order includes plants from 3 families, encompassing 17 genera and approximately 4,170 species. Many members of Piperales have features similar to monocotyledons, such as vascular bundles in the stem and threefold flower parts.
Some well-known plants in the Piperales order and their uses:
- Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a spice derived from the fruits of a perennial climbing vine. It is one of the earliest spices known and is also used to relieve flatulence and stimulate gastric secretions.
- Betel pepper (Piper betle) leaves are chewed with betel nut and mineral lime as a stimulant in Southeastern Asia.
- Piper methysticum is used to make a ceremonial drink called kava with narcotic and sedative effects.
- Several Peperomia species are grown as houseplants for their foliage, and P. vividispica is consumed as food in Central and South America.
- Ornamental plants include lizard’s tail (Saururus cernuus), Anemopsis, wild ginger (Asarum), and vining Aristolochia.
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Piperales, order of flowering plants comprising 3 families, 17 genera, and 4,170 species. Along with the orders Laurales, Magnoliales, and Canellales, Piperales forms the magnoliid clade, which is an early evolutionary branch in the angiosperm tree; the clade corresponds to part of the subclass Magnoliidae under the old Cronquist botanical classification system.
Many Piperales species are cultivated ornamentals, including lizard’s tail (Saururus cernuus); Peperomia species; Anemopsis, from southwestern North America; Houttuynia, a ground cover from Asia; wild ginger (Asarum); and vining Aristolochia species, some known as Dutchman’s pipe. Piper nigrum is the main source of the spicy condiment known as black pepper (but also green or white pepper).
Common characteristics
Members of the order Piperales often have several features also found in monocotyledons, including discrete vascular bundles in the stem and threefold flower parts. Although there are woody members, this order is characteristically herbaceous and often has swollen leaf nodes. Reproduction by seeds is the main method of species dispersal in Piperales, but fragmentation of rhizomes in the lizard’s-tail family assures vegetative propagation. The drupe is the prevailing fruit type in Piperaceae, or the pepper family, whereas dry fruits characterize the four other families.
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Families
Saururaceae, the lizard’s-tail family, is native to North America and Southeast Asia. It includes five genera and six species, most of them aromatic herbs with creeping rhizomes (horizontal stems). The plants generally inhabit wet areas.
The largest family in Piperales is Piperaceae, which is pantropical and includes 5 genera and some 3,600 species, most of them in the large genera Peperomia and Piper (the black pepper genus). Saururaceae and Piperaceae are closely related. Their inflorescences (flower clusters) are slender, spikelike, and covered with inconspicuous closely appressed flowers. Even though individual flowers are small, the floral spikes are showy, and in several Saururaceae species the spikes resemble a single flower because of the expanded bracts that arise below the inflorescence. In Saururus the elongate cluster bends at its tip to suggest the fanciful appellation “lizard’s tail.” Other features common to most species of these two families include a sheathing leaf base, a lack of sepals and petals, bisexual flowers (stamens and carpels in the same flower), and the presence of one erect ovule per ovary chamber.
Aristolochiaceae, the birthwort family, includes about 590 species of woody vines, shrubs, and herbaceous species. Most species are distributed in the tropics of both hemispheres, though several genera are in the temperate zone. Compared with the flowers of other Piperales families, those of Aristolochiaceae are usually large, and some trap pollinating flies that are lured by unpleasant smells. Asarum and Saruma are herbaceous genera of the north temperate zone, most diverse in eastern Asia. Aristolochia includes more than 400 species of vines and herbs, many of them tropical. It is this group that is sometimes divided into two or four separate genera.
Lactoris fernandeziana, the only species in Lactoris (formerly of the family Lactoridaceae), is found on one island of the Juan Fernández Archipelago, off the coast of Chile. The leaves have a sheathing base, and the flowers occur singly or in small clusters along the stem. The flower stalks, or petioles, appear to arise from a sheathing leaf base that lacks a leaf blade. Lactoris pollen has been recovered in southern Africa from sediments dating back to the Late Cretaceous Epoch (100.5 million to 66 million years ago).
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The former family Hydnoraceae is now a small subfamily of Aristolochiaceae, with around 10 species in two genera. They are terrestrial parasitic plants that lack leaves and chlorophyll. The large flowers have a single three-parted perianth whorl and an inferior ovary; they are foul-smelling and are pollinated by flies and beetles. Prosopanche occurs in Central and South America, and Hydnora occurs in Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula. The southern African Hydnora triceps grows exclusively on succulent species of Euphorbia.