Purple,
That is indeed Peperomia caperata. I just bought one of these myself at a grocery store this weekend. I think mine has more reddish hues in the leaves though.

Planto

Well that's 3 votes for Pep. Thanks! Apparently it's one of the strange people. Like some Begonias, the leaves are wildly differently colored depending on the amount of light and angle of it. It's so cute and tiny, I fell in love instantly!

Purple,
Sure thing! Thanks for the link, I learned a little bit more about it's care. Sounds a little touchy with the watering, but it's usually trial and error for me anyways. I do know the worst thing you can do is let it sit in water overnight... my Mother used to have one and I did this by mistake (forgot about it). It only took a couple of days to fall apart!

I didn't know that about the leaf coloring, thanks for sharing. I was wondering if I had a different cultivar or something, my Mother's was more of a dark green than a reddish color. Nope, probably just the lighting. :)

Planto

Purple,
I hope you don't mind me sharing, but here's a photo of mine. I noticed it has tiny blooms on it already. They're rather odd looking!

Planto

Purple,
Ok, one last post (I think). Here's a photo of their blooms. My Mother's had much taller and large blooms than this one. This bloom looks tiny compared to the ones she had on hers. I think from bottom to top, the entire stem/flower was close to 5 inches long!

Planto

Oh that's as cute as it can be! And perfectly healthy looking, so nice. I'm completely unqualified to do anything but compare it to google pics. Maybe it will get taller as it ages? I guess it's not a spathe since Peperomia is in the Piperaceae family, not Aroid.

Found a great macro pic (NOT mine.) Wonder what this kind of flower is called?

The article I linked above mentions a similar-looking species, P. griseoargentea, and from the two descriptions and even googling pics, I can't say for sure which I have but leaning toward the suggested caperata. I'm not even sure, looking at your pics next to my plant, if they're exactly the same. I think yours is more burgundy. Some of the spots that look gray/variegated are probably camera flash. How fun is it to know there are others out there, somewhere...?!

Purple, your plant is Peperomia caperata, but one of the more colorful cultivars. If you look up "Emerald Ripple ", you'll see examples of the much more common, bright green species.

The infloescence is called a spike.

Purple,
Wow, those are some odd looking flowers. The flowers on both my Mother's and mine are just tubular looking... no little "feet" for a lack of a better word.

I understand the feeling about looking for a comparison picture, I can't seem to find anything myself. I have a book on houseplants and the picture of Peperomia caperata looks the same as ours with respect to the leaves. Perhaps ours just vary in color due to as you mentioned earlier, different lighting?

I'm not sure what they look like when they get older... I know Pilea tends to get leggy, but other than my houseplant book saying "bushy," I can't find any pictures of "old" ones to say oh ok, that's what it'll look like in a couple years.

Planto

Rhizo,
I was typing when you posted your message apparently. Thanks for the information to Purple as it also applies to my Peperomia. :)

Planto

I have a few of these, one is more pink and the other is shimmery greenish colored...be VERY careful in watering, they can rot FAST before you even know what happened. They like to be moist but not too wet and never complety dry. I think they're up there in the harder to keep alive peps like the watermelon peps, not as easy like the Peperomia obtusifolia. Goodluck with it, they're very cute plants. I love the peperomia family.

-FPT

Thanks for the inputs! "Can't find a pic of an older one" makes me nervous. So does the prospect of repotting this tiny thing which is, of course, in a now solid chunk of peat. It will soon be that time! Hopefully it will be happy in its' future fairy garden home.

We learn a lot of cool plant words here, but I gotta admit, "spike" is kind of a let down... although I won't have to look up the spelling to use it again. LOL!

Purple and Planto.

Your Peps are beautiful. I'm soooo jealous. :)

Purple, you'll find more colors if you Google, Emerald Ripple, like Rhizo suggested.
ER's/Peps foliage have various colors...green, silver, red, pink and variegated. And then some.

Unless the Spike is a baby, most grow taller than the Pep itself. Miniatures have smaller Spikes/flowers.

Toni

Hey Folks,

I'm late to this thread, I know, but it's definitely a Peperomia, caperata sounds right. Those flower spikes are the tell-tale ID on these, & yes, they will get somewhat taller. Some folks casually refer to that style of bloom as a rat tail-like spike, cause really, nothing else resembles that.

When I was in college, I lived briefly in a dorm on campus & this was the only plant I had. I kept it on my window sill & got it 'cause I was smitten /w its texture, I love the corrugated look it has. Mine was the all green version.

I have since grown a few other Peps (& there are even a couple of succulent Peps), tho' have none at the moment.

I also really like the Watermelon Pep (sorry, only know the common name) as it has really cool leaf markings.

I seem to recall that some Peps can be propagated from leaves (Rhizo, does that ring a bell w/ you?), cut kind of crosswise, like one can do to an AV.

Purp, perhaps if you break a leaf or 2, try potting them up too, ya never know!!! Pretty plant, enjoy!