2024 Edition • Donate • Get the App • Cite this Page
X

Colors

Data mode

Account

Login
Sign up

Support FSUS...

We've finished our 2024 fundraiser. Many thanks to those who have given! It's not too late to support us (click here)...

Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.

Key to Peperomia

Copy permalink to share

1 Leaves opposite or whorled; stems strigose.
  2 Bractlet margins crenulate; spikes ca. 1 mm in diameter; [terrestrial on shell middens; e. coast of FL, from Duval County south to Martin County]
  2 Bractlet margins entire; spikes ca. 2 mm in diameter; [primarily epiphytic in strand swamps; s. FL (Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Collier counties)]
1 Leaves alternate; stems glabrous or glabrescent.
    3 Leaf bases slightly auriculate and clasping/decurrent on the stem, sessile or subsessile (petioles to 3 mm long).
    3 Leaf bases cuneate, truncate, rounded, or cordate, distinctly petiolate (the petiole > 3 mm long).
      4 Leaves 2-4× as long as wide, the apex acute to acuminate, the base cuneate; plant either with conspicuous black punctate glands on stems and leaves, or black punctate glands absent or minute and inconspicuous.
        5 Black punctate glands absent or minute and inconspicuous
        5 Black punctate glands conspicuous
      4 Leaves 0.8-2× as long as wide, the apex rounded to emarginate (or if broadly cuneate, then the base rounded to truncate); plant lacking dark punctate glands (may have pellucid or amber glands).
          6 Leaves 0.8-1.3× as long as wide; largest leaves < 3 cm long, < 2.5 cm wide; leaf base rounded, truncate, or cordate; leaf venation palmate (with 3-7 main veins arising from a point at the leaf base).
             7 Leaf base truncate to cordate; leaf apex acute; primary palmate veins 5-7 from the base
             7 Leaf base broadly rounded; leaf apex broadly rounded; primary palmate veins 3 from the leaf base
          6 Leaves 1.3-2× as long as wide; largest leaves > 4 cm long, > 1.5 cm wide; leaf base cuneate; leaf venation pinnate (4-10 secondary veins diverging from the midvein at intervals above the base).
               8 Peduncles with microscopic trichomes
               8 Peduncles glabrous.
                 9 Leaf blades typically oval to suborbicular, broadest near the midpoint, 4-9 cm long; [epiphytic on bark of living branches well above the ground; se. FL (Dade County) hammocks]
                 9 Leaf blades typically cuneate and obovate, broadest above the middle, 9-14 cm long; [on decaying on bark of logs and stumps]