Peperomia pampalcana is a species of terrestrial or epiphytic herb in the genus Peperomia that is native to Peru. It grows on wet tropical biomes. Its conservation status has been evaluated as threatened.
The type specimen were collected at Pampalca, Peru at an altitude of 3200 meters above sea level.
Peperomia pampalcana is a tall, forked or divaricately branched, succulent herb with a stem 3âÂÂ5 mm thick, sparsely covered in stiff villous hairs. The leaves are opposite or rarely in whorls of 3. They are elliptic to round-ovate, bluntly short-acuminate, with a rounded to somewhat acute base, measuring about 4 cm long and 3.5 cm wide. Upper leaves are smaller (1.5 cm long, 1 cm wide), and on the ultimate flowering branchlets, they are reduced to 8 mm long and 5 mm wide. The leaves are 3-nerved (or 5-nerved on longer ones), firm when dry, brown above, yellowish beneath, and loosely villous. The petiole is about 1 cm long, much shorter on reduced leaves. The spikes are solitary in the axils of reduced leaves and also terminal on short branchlets, appearing somewhat paniculate. They are 40âÂÂ60 mm long and 3 mm thick, with a sparsely pilose peduncle 10âÂÂ15 mm long. The berries are ovoid, pointed, and bear a pseudocupula, with an apical stigma.
It was described in 1936 by William Trelease in ', from specimens collected by Ellsworth Paine Killip & Albert Charles Smith.
The epithet pampalcana is derived from the type locality.
It is native to Peru. It grows as a terrestrial or epiphytic herb. It grows on wet tropical biomes.
This species has been assessed as threatened in a preliminary report.