Piper tetraphyllum G. Forster, Prodr. Fl. Ins. Austr. 5: 5. 1786; Peperomia reflexa (Linnaeus f.) A. Dietrich (1831), not P. reflexa Kunth (1815); P. reflexa (Linnaeus f.) A. Dietrich f. sinensis C. de Candolle; P. tetraphylla var. sinensis (C. de Candolle) P. S. Chen & P. C. Zhu; Piper reflexum Linnaeus f.

Herbs perennial, fleshy, forming clumps, usually glabrous except for rachis and bases of bracts. Stolons present. Stems many branched, 10-30 cm, internodes thickly ridged. Leaves dense, ± uniform in size; petiole 1-2 mm, glabrous or pubescent; leaf blade broadly elliptic or suborbicular, 0.9-1.2 cm × 5-9 mm, fleshy, pale and usually wrinkled when dried, pellucid dotted, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, rarely densely pubescent, base and apex rounded, slightly revolute; veins 3, slender, usually inconspicuous. Spike terminal and axillary, solitary, 2-4.5 cm; peduncle sparsely pubescent to ± glabrous; bracts suborbicular, stalk short. Filaments short, thecae rounded-"D"-shaped. Ovary ovoid, inserted within excavations of rachis; stigmas capitate, pubescent. Nutlet subovoid, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Feb-Apr, Sep-Dec.

Some plants from Guizhou and S Yunnan are much more densely hairy than the typical form of Peperomia tetraphylla and can be separated as var. sinensis.

Used for medicinal and ornamental purposes.

Wet rocks and dead trees, along streams; 600-3100 m. Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Taiwan, S Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Thailand; Africa, Central and South America, Oceania]