English: African long pepper; Ethiopian long pepper; Timiz.
Synonym: Coccobryon capense; Piper bequaertii; Piper emirnense; Piper odoratum; Piper sacleuxii; Piper trichopodum; Piper volkensii.
SourcesAfrican Flowering
Plants Database; http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php; Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques.
Flora Zambesiaca; http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html.
Protabase; Plant Resources of Tropical Africa; http://www.prota.org.
Region: Africa; Sierra Leone to Ethiopia and Sudan, south to Angola, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.
Botany: variable plant in habit, ranging from a weakly erect, aromatic, evergreen shrub or subshrub, to a more or less herbaceous perennial and sometimes a straggling plant that scrambles into other plants for support; stems ± 3 m long, with one or sometimes several stems arising from a tuberous rootstock; habitat forest undergrowth, wet places, swampy forest edges, mixed bamboo-forest, scrub and thicket near streams, grassland, tree clumps; elevations from 650 - 2,500 metres; fruit a globose, ovoid drupe, ± 3 mm long, 1 seed.
Taxonomy: closely related to
Piper nigrum.
Content: monoterpene, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons; sesquiterpene capentin; several neo-lignans; α-pinene, β-pinene, camphene and sabinene.
Use: as a spice