Climber with nodes hardly swollen but often producing adventitious roots. Leaves more or less heart-shaped, to 15 cm or more long and 10 cm wide, venation palmate with 5-9 veins, tip pointed. Male and female flower spikes separate, males to 15 cm long, females to about 7 cm long. Fruits fusing to form a fleshy red mass.
India to Malay Peninsula
Grown in SE Asia where the leaves and flower spikes are chewed with slaked lime and betel nut (the fruit of the palm Areca catechu).
Source: (1997). Piperaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
