Piper nigrum <p>Black pepper is usually propagated by cuttings from straight shoots of plants less than 2 years old. Stolons, marcots and grafts are also used, but seedlings only rarely. Pepper is usually planted on mounds because it does not tolerate waterlogging. Young plants have to be shaded. The plants need support, and may be grown upon a commercial tree crop, concrete posts or wood stakes. Pepper is a heavy feeder of nutrients. Organic manures, including cow dung, guano, fish refuse, soya bean cake and blood-and-bone meal, are extensively used. Mulching is also beneficial. In some places, nitrogen-fixing cover crops are grown between the plants. Pruning encourages lateral fertile branches. Fruit production begins in the 3rd year, full production is reached after 7 years and economical life is about 12-20 years. Drupes are collected raw or ripe depending on the desired product. To produce black pepper, raw mature drupes are cooked briefly in hot water and then dried. White pepper is the seed of the pepper plant obtained by removing the outer skin and fleshy mesocarp of the ripe red drupe. Green peppers are dried raw drupes treated in away that retains the green colour, e.g. with sulfur dioxide, by freeze-drying or canning.</p> L. A set of Kenyan/tropical plants compiled in Dec 2018 by Jouko Rikkinen <p>Black pepper is one of the oldest and most important of all spices in terms of usage and value in world trade. In culinary literature, the whole pepper fruit is called peppercorn. <i>Piper longum</i> (longpepper) has a similar but hotter taste than <i>P. nigrum</i>. <i>P. longum</i> is very rarely used in Europe, but it can be found in Indian vegetable pickles, some North African spice mixtures, and in Indonesian and Malaysian cooking. In Indian grocery stores long pepper is usually labeled <i>pippali</i>.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b></p><p>Spice, essential oil, poison, Piperaceae.</p> <p>Stems have swollen nodes and adventitious roots near the base. Branching is dimorphic. Vertical vegetative stems become stout, woody with a thick flake-like bark. At each node there is a leaf, an axillary bud which grows out to give the horizontal fruiting branch and short adventitious roots which adhere to the climbing support. Leaves are alternate, stipulate, entire, ovate, leathery, up to 20 x12, petiolate, dark green above, pale beneath. Flowers are minute, on pendulous spikes borne opposite leaves, greenish or white, unisexual or bisexual, and without perianth. Ovary is globose, uniovulate, with 3-5 stigmas. Stamens are 2-4. Fruits are in 5-15 cm long spikes of 50-60, sessile, globose drupes. Each drupe is upto 6 mm in diameter, turning red when ripe, drying black. Seed is solitary, up to 4 mm in diameter.&#xa0; </p> <p>A glabrous woody climbing perennial, up to 10 m tall.</p> 4 <p>Fruits of <i>P. nigrum</i> have been used as a spice since times of Hippocrates.<b> </b>The fruits are used whole, cracked, coarsely ground, or finely ground in numerous culinary preparations. Pepper oil, distilled from the fruit, is used in perfumery. Piperine, the alkaloid responsible for the pungency of the fruit, is used as an insecticide that is more toxic to houseflies than pyrethrin.</p> ryytipippuri <p>In 2011, the worldwide production of black pepper was 435,155 tons. Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Brazil are the major producers.</p> <p>In the wild, <i>P. nigrum</i> grows on forested slopes in monsoon climate with ca. 2000 mm of rain per year. <i>P. nigrum</i> requires a hot wet tropical climate and it is usually grown at low and middle altitudes up to 1500 m. Optimal temperature is 22-35°C, but it tolerates 10-40°C. Optimal rainfall is 2500-4000 mm/year. Pepper can be grown on a variety of soils but best yields are obtained on fertile well-drained humus-rich alluvial soil with pH above 5.5. </p> <p><i>P. nigrum</i> is<b> </b>native of India. It is cultivated in most tropical countries between 20°S and N and up to 2000 m of altitude.</p>