Black pepper
Black pepper: Sowing, planting and harvest calendar
Black pepper, Piper nigrum, is a perennial tropical vine in the Piperaceae family. Its fruits provide the peppercorns used as a spice. This identity distinguishes it from chillies and sweet peppers of the genus Capsicum, as well as Sichuan pepper and pink peppercorns, which come from other plants. The common word pepper therefore covers products with different botanical origins. Here it refers to the vine that supplies black, white and green peppercorns.The plant has climbing stems and simple, alternate leaves, oval in shape and tapering towards the tip. Their upper surface is generally dark green and glossy, with a paler underside. Small adventitious roots help it attach to the supports it encounters. This leafy, climbing outline has ornamental interest in its own right. The plant does not naturally have the same architecture as a fruit tree with a clearly defined trunk and crown, even though its stems can become woody…
