Man to man

Peperomia pellucida, commonly called man to man, pepper elder, shining bush plant, pansit-pansitan or coraçãozinho, is a succulent annual herb in the Piperaceae family native to the American tropics and now pantropically naturalised, growing as a weed in shaded, moist places such as garden beds, walls, roadsides, plantations and forest margins. The plant is shallow-rooted and reaches 15 to 45 centimetres in height, with translucent, watery, glabrous stems that branch from the base. The alternate, broadly heart-shaped, fleshy leaves are 1 to 4 centimetres long, glossy yellowish-green with palmate venation and an entire margin; they exhibit a faint mustard-like odour when crushed. Tiny perfect flowers lacking a perianth are borne in slender, erect, filiform spikes 2 to 6 centimetres long arising from the leaf axils and stem apices; each flower consists of two stamens and a single ovary. The fruit is a minute, dotted, globose to obovoid drupelet about 0.5 millimetre across that is sticky and adheres to passing surfaces, contributing to the plant's wide weedy distribution. Peperomia pellucida flowers continuously in warm climates.