Oriental Pepper is found in open, wet places along streams at low and medium altitudes. It also occurs in China to Japan and southward to Australia. The plant is a branching annual, 30-100 cm in height. The leaves are long-stalked, ovate or ovate-cordate, 15-20 cm long, 5-12 cm wide, and covered with soft, silky, grey hairs. The racemes are cylindric, laxly panicled, and 8-13 cm long. The flowers are white. The nut is about 3 mm in diameter, rounded, black, and shining. There is variety of this plant with rose-pink flowers, which is widely cultivated in the West as a garden plant, and is called Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate.
Medicinal uses: The nuts are prescribed in tuberculous swellings and in flatulence.