Piper guahamense

Piper guahamense, the Guam pepper[1] (Chamorro: pupulun aniti), is a plant in the family Piperaceae, and is endemic to the Mariana Islands.[2]

Piper guahamense
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Magnoliids
Order: Piperales
Family: Piperaceae
Genus: Piper
Species:
P. guahamense
Binomial name
Piper guahamense
C.DC. (1869)
Synonyms
  • Macropiper guahamense (C.DC.) A.C.Sm.
  • Macropiper guahamense f. glabrum (Yunck.) A.C.Sm.
  • Piper guahamense var. glabrum Yunck.

Description and habitat

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]

Taxonomy

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]

Invertebrate ecology

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:

  • a leafhopper (Batrachomorphus viridoflavidus) (collected from Dededo and Mt. Alifan on Guam)[5]
  • a leafhopper (Bythoscopus viridofiavidus) (collected from Dededo).
  • a plant bug (Lygus fullawayi) (collected from Agiguan, Mt. Lasso on Tinian, and on Guam on Mt. Santa Rosa and Mt. Lamlam)[6]
  • a plant bug (Zanchius piperi) (collected only on Guam and apparently named after its host plant)[7]

The following insects are endemic to the Marianas or Micronesia and have been observed on Piper guahamense and other 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]

References
  1. Safford, William Edwin (1905). The Useful Plants of the Island of Guam. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 354–355. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  2. "Piper guahamense C.DC. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
  3. Smith, Albert C. (July 1975). "The genus Macropiper (Piperaceae)*". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 71 (1): 1–38. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1975.tb00936.x.
  4. Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de (1869). Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis, sive, Enumeratio contracta ordinum, generum, specierumque plantarum, huc usque cognitarum, juxta methodi naturalis normas digesta (in Latin). Vol. 16. Paris: Victoris Masson et Filii. p. 385.
  5. Metcalf, Z. P. (1946). "Fulgoroidea and Jassoidea of Guam". Insects of Guam-II (PDF). Honolulu, GU: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. p. 136.
  6. Carvalho, Jose C. M. (1956). "Heteroptera: Miridae". Insects of Micronesia (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. pp. 84–85.
  7. Carvalho, Jose C. M. (1956). "Heteroptera: Miridae". Insects of Micronesia (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. pp. 68–69.
  8. Lallemand, O. H. "Cercopidae of Guam". Cercopidae (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. p. 17.
  9. Bernhauer, Max (1942). "Staphylinidae of Guam". Staphylinidae (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. pp. 42–43.
  10. Blair, K. G. (1942). "Coleoptera Heteromera from Guam". Insects of Guam-I (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. pp. 57–58.
  11. PLANTS OF GUAM-II (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. 1946.
  12. Metcalf, Z. P. (1946). "Fulgoroidea and Jassoidea of Guam". Insects of Guam-II (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. pp. 118–119.
  13. Zimmerman, Elwood C. (1942). "Curculionidae of Guam". Insects of Guam-I (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. pp. 83–84, 92–93, 111–112.
  14. Schedl, Karl E. (1942). "Barkbeetles of Guam". Insects of Guam-I (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice Bishop Museum. pp. 147–148.
  15. Carvalho, Jose C. M. (1956). "Heteroptera: Miridae". Insects of MIcronesia (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. pp. 79–81.
  16. Zimmerman, Elwood C. (1942). "Anthribidae of Guam". Insects of Guam-I (PDF). Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. p. 72.
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