Stems of P. pterocladum are hollow and support myrmecophytic ants.
Ridges or wings in stem are pronounced. The plant is rarely branched. The stem is pale green, very short petiole, leaves wider at base.
P. pterocladum can reach heights of 3m.
This information is based an ongoing project dedicated to the inventory and dissemination of information on lepidopteran larvae, their host plants, and their parasitoids in an Ecuadorian montane cloud forest.
N=8 herbivore associations as of 2012.
Geometridae: Eois nov. sp. "pistachio"; N=6.
Larval lepidopteran herbivores reared in Napo Province, Ecuador (Yanayacu Biological Station and Center for Creative Studies).
For Piper phylogeny see attached pdf (Jaramillo et al., 2008).
For original publication details of Piper pterocladum see: Candollea 1: 145, f. 18 145 1923.
Piper pterocladum is endemic to Ecuador.
This information was accessed through Tropicos and Discover Life.
400m-1500m (based on CAPEA data).
Larval lepidopteran herbivores collected from P. pterocladum located in Napo Province, Ecuador (Nucanchi causai).
The hollow stems of Piper pterocladum are occupied by Pheidole sp. (Formicidae, Hymenoptera). The plants produces pearl bodies as rewards for the ants and the ants protect the plant from herbivores.
Prior to the disovery of myrmecophytism in the Ecuadorian eastern Andes Piperaceae species, Piper pterocladum (Piper section Radulu) and Piper immutatum (Piper section Peltobryon), myrmecophytism was only to known to exist in Central American Piper species of Piper section Macrostachys (Tepe et al., 2007).
This discovery demonstrates that the Pheidole-Piper associations are excellent examples of convergent evolution.
For more information on this ant-plant mutualism, see attached pdf (Tepe et al.,2008).
Piper sulcatum Sodiro is a synonym for the accepted name, Piper pterocladum C.DC.. This information was accessed through The Plant List.