Piper guahamense | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Magnoliids |
Order: | Piperales |
Family: | Piperaceae |
Genus: | Piper |
Species: | P. guahamense
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Binomial name | |
Piper guahamense C.DC. (1869)
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Synonyms | |
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Piper guahamense, the Guam pepper[1] (Chamorro: pupulun aniti), is a plant in the family Piperaceae, and is endemic to the Mariana Islands.[2]
P. guahamense morphologically resembles the kava pepper, and it has a similar aroma and taste. It is common in shady, moist forests and streamside.[1]
Piper guahamense was first classified as being in the Macropiper genus by in 1839 by Dutch botanist Friedrich Miquel.[3]
The name Piper guahamense was first recorded in 1869 in the 16th volume of Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis by Swiss botanist, Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle.[4] However, later authors grouped it into the narrower genus Macropiper, which consisted of only 9 species, all in the Pacific Ocean. The species is now subsumed under the large genus Piper.[3]
Several species of insect have been recovered exclusively from Piper guahamense. The following is a list of endemic insects that are possibly host-specific. All were collected during a 1911 and 1936 entomological surveys of the island:
The following insects are endemic to the Marianas or Micronesia and have been observed on Piper guahamense and other plant species: a spittlebug (Lallemandana phalerata),[8] a rove beetle (Palaminus swezeyi),[9] an ant-like leaf beetle (Euglenes bifossicollis),[10] a tumbling flower beetle (Mordellistena castanea), a chalcid wasp (Ooencyrtus swezeyi),[11] three planthoppers (Tambinia guamensis, Ugyops samoaensis, and Capelopterum punctatellum),[12] and four true weevils (Trigonops inusitata, Trigonops vulgaris, Daealus tuberosus, and Cryphalus swezeyi) (Elwood C. Zimmerman noted extensive perforations in the leaves of Piper guahamense due to Trigonops).[13][14]
Non-endemic invertebrates collected from Piper guahamense include a plant bug (Creontiades pallidifer),[15] a chalcicoid wasp (Spalangia endius), and a fungus weevil (Araecerus vieillardi).[16]