Mashitandu Chedi / Shiny Bush
Peperomia pellucida
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Kerala, West Bengal, Goa & more
- Flowering
- August-February
How to identify Mashitandu Chedi
Identify Mashitandu Chedi by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Translucent, almost see-through thin leaves and stems.
- Confirm leaf margin: Entire.
- Confirm leaf surface: Glabrous (smooth, hairless).
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: August-February.
- In India, compare location records such as Kerala, West Bengal, Goa, Assam and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Piperaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Mashitandu Chedi.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Peperomia pellucida
- Genus
- Peperomia
- Family
- Piperaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Habitat
- Degraded forest areas and wasteland near moist and shaded places
- Native to
- Tropical America
- Distribution
- Pantropical weed
- Found in India
- Kerala, West Bengal, Goa, Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan
- Flowering & fruiting
- August-February
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf margin
- EntirerecordedA smooth, unbroken edge with no teeth or notches.“Although mostly grown for its ornamental foliage, the entire plant is edible, both cooked and raw.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Leaf surface
- Glabrous (smooth, hairless)recorded
Typical of the family
Characters marked “recorded” are for Mashitandu Chedi itself; the rest are typical of the Piperaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Spike
- Fruit
- Drupe
Typical of the Piperaceae family — flowering plants only; individual species can differ.
Local Names
- Nepali
- लतपते Latapate
- Bengali
- দীপ্ত লুচি পাতা
- Malayalam
- Mashitandu chedi, മഷിത്തണ്ട്, Mashithantu
About Mashitandu Chedi
Shiny Bush (Peperomia pellucida) belongs to the Piperaceae family, where it grows as a herb. In India it has been recorded in Kerala, West Bengal, Goa and 16 other states. It grows in degraded forest areas and wasteland near moist and shaded places. Flowering and fruiting run from August to February.
Uses
It is grown for parts that are eaten, long used in traditional medicine and planted as an ornamental. Those medicinal uses are traditional attributions, not medical advice.
Piperaceae
Pepper family
Mashitandu Chedi belongs to the Piperaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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