Black Pepper originates from the coast of an Indian subcontinent. The long-living, head-high, heat-demanding plants are cultivated like beans on a long stick or a stick-pyramid. A distinctive feature of the plant are its sleek, glossy and slightly succulent leaves with parallel leaf vernation. The green-yellow flowers are inconspicuos and anly consist of filaments and pistils without petals or sepals. In midsummer, the flowers line up to 8 to 12 cm long hanging panicles. For impollination it is best to have two plants because with a single Black Pepper it might come to incompatibility of pollen or time differences. The flowers are pollinated by insects (or, in a wintergarden, can be pollinated with a paintbrush) and ripen to round, app. 5 mm big seeds that are red when ripe. They are either processed to green pepper - these are the still unripe fruits that have been pickled in brine. By drying the fully ripe fruits these become black: that’s what we usually grind in a pepper mill. For white pepper, the exteriour peel is removed. All three kinds of pepper get their acerbity from the content of Piperin.

Quality: worldwide known spice; delicate climber with little space requirement; robust, tropical fruit plant
Use: all-year in a heated wintergarden or bright room