Peperomia tanalensis

Peperomia tanalensis is a species of flowering plant in the genus Peperomia. It was first described by John Gilbert Baker and published in the book "Journal of Botany, British and Foreign 20: 244. 1882". It primarily grows on wet tropical biomes. The species name came from Tanala, where first specimens of this species were collected.

Distribution

It is endemic to Madagascar. First specimens where found Fianarantsoa, Tanala.

Description

It is upright, pilose, heavily branched, densely tufted, and has approximately one foot tall stems. The leaves are ternate, shortly petioled, oblong, acute, entire, approximately 1 inch long. The leaves are densely pilose, with a pronounced midrib and two faint side veins that run from the base to the margin a short distance from the tip of the leaf. They are also opposite or at the tip of the branchlets. The copius spikes that are slender, terminal, shortly peduncled; rachis glabrous; peltate bracts, glabrous, lower distant, upper contiguous. Glabrous ovary with a sessile stigma at the end.