Black pepper

[name of traditional Chinese medicine] Pepper [plant morphology] climbing woody vines. There are many nodes, the nodes are slightly enlarged and have adventitious roots. Leaves simple, alternate, leathery; leaf blade broadly ovate, ovate-oblong, elliptic, sparsely rounded, apex shortly acuminate, base rounded or shallowly cordate, slightly oblique, entire, dark green above, pale green below, basal veins 5-7; leaf sheath extended, often half of petiole. Flowers unisexual, dioecious or polygamous, spikes lateral on stem nodes opposite leaves, bracts peltate-oblong, shallowly cup-shaped ventral narrowly long connate with inflorescence axis, margin separated, with lateral bracteoles; without perianth, stamens 2, anthers reniform, 2-loculed, filaments short; ovary superior, subglobose, 1-loculed, without style, stigma 3-lobed, hairy. Berries globose, sessile, closely arranged, spikes cylindrical, green when young, red when mature. The seeds are small. The flowering period is from April to October and the fruiting period is from October to April of the following year. [harvest and processing] from late autumn to the following spring, the fruit is harvested when it is dark green, and it is black pepper after drying.