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Piper auritum
Also called Mexican Pepperleaf, Ear Leaf Pepper, Sacred Pepper, Root Beer Plant, False 'awa, False Kawa
Piper auritum is an aromatic perennial herb or small shrub in the pepper family, grown mainly for its large, heart-shaped, velvety leaves used as a culinary wrapper and flavoring. It is a tropical plant that needs warmth, humidity and shelter from frost.
Piper auritum is an aromatic culinary herb in the pepper family Piperaceae, which grows in and is endemic to tropical Central America. Common names include hoja santa (Spanish for 'sacred leaf'), yerba santa, hierba santa, Mexican pepperleaf, acuyo, tlanepa, anisillo, root beer plant, Vera Cruz pepper, sacred pepper, and juniapa.
It is native to the Americas, from northern South America to Mexico, and is also cultivated in California and southeast Florida.
It is often used in Mexican cuisine in tamales, fish or meat wrapped in its fragrant leaves for cooking, and as an essential ingredient in mole verde, a green sauce originally from the Puebla/Oaxaca region of Mexico. It is also used to flavor eggs and soups like pozole. In Central Mexico, it is used to flavor chocolate drinks. In southeastern Mexico, a green liquor called verdín is made from hoja santa.
Higuillo de hoja menuda · Betel · Madagascan Wild Pepper · Javanese Long Pepper · Cubeb · Piper darienense · Pepper · Kadsura Pepper · Long pepper · Kava · Black pepper · Javanese long pepper
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Piper auritum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
