Spices and Condiments

Description of the Plant

• Pepper is a large genus, with over 1,000 species, in the family Piperaceae. They are mostly herbaceous or woody climbers or shrubs distributed in the tropics of both hemispheres. The other economic species of the genus Piper are P betle L. (Betel vine) and P methysticum Forst (Kava). In addition to P nigrum which now provides the true pepper of commerce, some of the species that have also been used as spices and as pepper substitutes are P cubeba (Cubeba or tailed pepper), P longum (Indian long pepper). P retrofractum (Java long pepper), etc.
• Piper nigrum is a climbing evergreen plant, growing to a height of 10 m or more. The vines branch horizontally from the nodes and do not attain much length. The pepper branches are dimorphic comprising: (i) the orthotropic vegetative climbing branches with 5- 12 cm long internodes which give the framework of the plant, their stems are swollen at the nodes when young but become woody on aging; and (ii) a plageotropic fruiting branch develops from the auxiliary bud present at each swollen node beside a leaf. The short adventitious roots produced at the nodes enable the plant to cling to the standard (climbing support). The leaves are alternate and simple, dark green and shiny above and pale green underneath. They are smooth and entire, broadly lanceolate but there is wide variation in leaf shape. The petioles are 2-5 cm long, and are grooved above.
• The spike is a catkin type of inflorescence, which emerges opposite the upper leaves, on the plagiotropic branches. It is 3-15 cm long with 50-150 minute white to pale yellow flowers. The flowers are either unisexual with monoecious or dioecious forms, or bisexual, as seen in many cultivars. Under intense shade conditions, the hermaphrodite type produces more female flowers and less bisexual flowers. The flowers are cross-pollinated and thus much variation occurs among the progeny. Moreover, hermaphrodite flowers are protogynous; i.e., they attain receptivity well in advance of the pollen maturity, which results in uneven fertilisation of flowers and non uniform, incomplete filling of the spikes.
• Flowering begins at the base of the spike and continues to the tip over a week. It is found that bagged inflorescence produces fruits, indicating that the hermaphrodite cultivars (Eg: Balankotta, Kalluvalli) are self-fertile and self-pollination can occur without the aid of rain or wind. The pollen is in glutinous masses of several grains, which is broken up by light showers and the grains are trapped in the papillae of the stigma. But wind pollination has not been found to be very efficient. It seems that pollination is confined mainly to individual spikes. The fruit is a one-seeded green berry, sessile usually globose and sometimes elongated or oval. The seed is surrounded by a thin, soft pericap. During ripening, it becomes yellow and turns light red afterwards. The period taken from flowering to maturity is about 6 months.