Piperaceae
A natural order of herbs, shrubs, or very rarely trees, often aromatic or stimulant, broadly dispersed over the globe. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, small, often minute, variously disposed, scattered or dense, in spikes or rarely racemes, and furnished with a frequently peltate bract; perianth (except in one genus) absent; stamens two to six, or very rarely seven or eight (or one ?), hypogynous; filaments free, or rarely adnate to the base of the ovary. Fruit small, capsular or baccate. Leaves alternate, or rarely opposite or three or four in a whorl, entire or very rarely trifid, three or many-nerved, or penniveined, sometimes pellucid-dotted or succulent; stipules, when present, adnate to the petioles, or dilated at base and reduced to an amplexicaul petiole, or connate and opposite the leaves. Among the most important economical products of Piperaceae are Pepper and Betel. An acrid resin and a volatile, aromatic oil are possessed by the plants. The order comprises about eight genera and nearly 1000 species. Illustrative genera are: Houttuynia, Peperomia, and Piper.