Piper, the pepper plants or pepper vines, is an economically and ecologically important genus in the family Piperaceae.
Piper (plant)
Black pepper (Piper nigrum) corns, from left to right: Green (pickled unripe fruits) White (dried ripe seeds) Black (dried unripe fruits)
At a Kava club in Tonga (c. 2005)
Crystallized piperine, extracted from black pepper (Piper nigrum)
The Piperaceae, also known as the pepper family, are a large family of flowering plants. The group contains roughly 3,600 currently accepted species in 5 genera. The vast majority of species can be found within the two main genera: Piper and Peperomia.
Piperaceae
Piper caninum
Peperomia perciliata