Peperomia cereoides

Peperomia cereoides
Date: 2000 January 31
Location: Cajamarca, Peru

When we found this plant, it immediately appeared to be something unusual and interesting. We guessed that it was a member of the Crassulaceae, but after I first placed the photographs here, a number of people advised us that it appeared to be a species of Peperomia. The plants were maybe 30cm tall, the lower stems having lost their leaves. At right, a plant producing some sort of terminal inflorescence at the tips of the stems. We returned again to the site in December 2001, together with Nelson Cieza from nearby San Marcos, who had found the same plant at a different location in September 2000. The plant was finally described as Peperomia cereoides by Guillermo Pino, Olivier Klopfenstien, and Nelson Cieza in the Cactus and Succulent Journal (U.S.), Vol. 75 (2003), No. 1.