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Piper guahamense
Species of flowering plant From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Piper guahamense, the Guam pepper[1] (Chamorro: pupulun aniti), is a plant in the family Piperaceae, and is endemic to the Mariana Islands.[2]
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Description and habitat
P. guahamense morphologically resembles the kava pepper, and it has a similar aroma and taste. It is common in shady, moist forests and streamside.[1]
Taxonomy
Piper guahamense was first classified as being in the Macropiper genus by in 1839 by Dutch botanist Friedrich Miquel.[3]
The name Piper guahamense was first recorded in 1869 in the 16th volume of Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis by Swiss botanist, Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle.[4] However, later authors grouped it into the narrower genus Macropiper, which consisted of only 9 species, all in the Pacific Ocean. The species is now subsumed under the large genus Piper.[3]
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Ecology
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Several species of insect have been recovered exclusively from Piper guahamense. The following is a list of endemic insects that are possibly host-specific. All were collected during a 1911 and 1936 entomological surveys of the island:
- a leafhopper (Batrachomorphus viridoflavidus) (collected from Dededo and Mt. Alifan on Guam)[5]
- a leafhopper (Bythoscopus viridofiavidus) (collected from Dededo).
- a plant bug (Lygus fullawayi) (collected from Agiguan, Mt. Lasso on Tinian, and on Guam on Mt. Santa Rosa and Mt. Lamlam)[6]
- a plant bug (Zanchius piperi) (collected only on Guam and apparently named after its host plant)[7]
The following insects are endemic to the Marianas or Micronesia and have been observed on Piper guahamense and other plant species: a spittlebug (Lallemandana phalerata),[8] a rove beetle (Palaminus swezeyi),[9] an ant-like leaf beetle (Euglenes bifossicollis),[10] a tumbling flower beetle (Mordellistena castanea), a chalcid wasp (Ooencyrtus swezeyi),[11] three planthoppers (Tambinia guamensis, Ugyops samoaensis, and Capelopterum punctatellum),[12] and four true weevils (Trigonops inusitata, Trigonops vulgaris, Daealus tuberosus, and Cryphalus swezeyi) (Elwood C. Zimmerman noted extensive perforations in the leaves of Piper guahamense due to Trigonops).[13][14]
Non-endemic invertebrates collected from Piper guahamense include a plant bug (Creontiades pallidifer),[15] a chalcicoid wasp (Spalangia endius), and a fungus weevil (Araecerus vieillardi).[16]
Gallery
Foliage, Guam
Growing in limestone forest understory, Guam
Immature fruit on spadix, Guam
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._Dededo,_Guam.jpg)
References
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