Pepper
Pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine of the Piperaceae family, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and condiment. When dry, the fruit, called a peppercorn, is approximately 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed. Peppercorns, and the ground pepper obtained from them, may be described as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper (dark), green pepper (unripe or pickled), and white pepper (ripe). Pepper is native to southern India and is widely cultivated there and elsewhere in the tropics. Vietnam is the world's largest pepper producer and exporter, producing 34% of the world's crop as of 2013. Peppers, mainly black pepper, are grown in tropical regions including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Kampuchea. Green bell peppers, sweet peppers, and chili peppers (although they are not botanical berries) all belong to the species Capsicum annuum and are native to the America.
