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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-651
Long Pepper
Piper longum
Long Pepper is a light climbing shrub of humid tropical understories, grown for its unripe flowering spikes, which are picked whole and dried into a hot, aromatic spice used in curries, pickles, and Moroccan spice blends, or as an adulterant of black pepper. It has a long history in both traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda for digestive complaints, colds, and joint pain. Growing only about 3 m and needing light shade rather than full sun, it occupies the same understorey niche as commercial black pepper and climbs a trellis, post, or host tree rather than a plant a garden has to make room for. It cannot take a hard frost, but its small size, shade tolerance, and fruit borne right on the vine make it an easy candidate for container growing under cover where winters freeze.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Partial Sun · Shade
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–11
- Soil
- Loam
- Moisture
- Moist
Vertical layer
Vine- Soil pH
- 5.5–8.5
- Plant type
- Vine
- Mature height
- 5–9.8 ft
- Mature spread
- Not yet recorded
- Plant spacing
- 24 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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