747

Piper retrofractum Vahl

Synonym	:	Piper chaba Hunter
Family	:	Piperaceae
Local name	:	Malayalam - Anathippali
Flowering and fruiting period	:	April-September
Distribution	:	Indo-Malesia
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Cultivated
Endemic/Exotic	:	Exotic
Uses	:	The roots and fruits are useful in treat indigestion, abdominal colic, poisoning and anorexia.
Key Botanical Characters: Creeper plant that spreads on the ground. It may also grow around large trees. The stem can reach up to 12 m in length. The leaves are short-petioled, green in colour, oblong-ovate or elliptic-lanceolate in shape and chartaceous. The base is sublateral or inequilateral, pointed or slightly cordate with tips acute. It is penninerved, the lateral nerves 7 – 11 on each side of the midrib, ascending. The male spikes are 3.8 to 8.5 cm long; the bracts are somewhat stalked and peltate. There are 2-3 stamens which are stalkless. The female spikes are oblong in shape when matured, red in colour, fleshy, cylindric, the rachis is smooth and the bracts are stalkless and peltate. The fruit is more or less united partly or wholly imbedded in and concrescent with rachis. There are three short stigmas. The seeds are subglobose to obovoid-globose.