Piper hoyoscardozii

Description. Shrub with sarmentose branches. Internodes (1) 3 - 7 cm long, smooth, green, pubescent, trichomes pluricellular, uniseriate, 1 - 2.3 mm long, idioblasts not visible. Prophylls caducous, 1.2 - 1.5 cm long, green-whitish, pubescent, trichomes pluricellular, uniseriate, 0.2 - 1.0 mm long, dispersed on the abaxial surface, idioblasts not visible. Petioles uniform in size along all axes, 0.5 - 0.8 cm long, vaginate on the basal half, smooth and pubescent. Leaf-blades membranaceous, drying black, uniform in shape and size on all nodes, (5) 6 - 7 x (13) 15 - 17 cm, elliptic, symmetric, base cordate to rounded, apex acuminate; leaf blade smooth, pubescent on both surfaces, trichomes pluricellular, uniseriate, 0.5 - 2.3 mm long, dispersed on the adaxial surface, along first and second order nerves and dispersed on the areolas and third order nerves of the abaxial surface, eciliate; pinnately nerved from the lower 1 / 3, 2 - 3 nerves on each side, with spacing uniform or decreasing and angle increasing gradually towards the base, eucamptodromous, tertiary veins percurrent. Inflorescence and infructescence a simple spike, erect; peduncle 2 - 3 cm long, pubescent, green; rachis in flower 4 - 7 cm long, rachis in fruit 7 - 9 cm long, rachis with a 10 - 15 mm long, sterile green apical extension, fruits densely grouped along the rachis. Floral bracts cucullate, reddish in flower, triangular from above, 0.4 - 0.6 x 0.7 - 0.8 mm, glabrous on the adaxial surface, margin fimbriate, bracts forming bands around the spike. Flowers with four stamens, filaments 0.6 - 0.8 mm long, anthers 0.4 - 0.6 x 0.5 - 0.7 mm, longitudinally dehiscent, dithecous, with connective not protruding, glabrate, idioblasts not evident, black when dried. Sessile stigmas. Fruits rectangular, laterally compressed, green when alive and black when dry, 0.9 - 1.2 x 1.5 - 1.9 mm, pubescent, partially immersed in the rachis, with persistent sessile stigmas, 0.05 - 0.1 mm. Seeds oblong, laterally compressed, brown, smooth, 0.8 - 1 x 0.8 - 1.1 mm.