La Lot

(Piper sarmentosum)

La lot is has beautiful glossy green leaves and is a great groundcover for shady - part shady areas. It is a relative of pepper, native to Vietnam and can be shredded straight into salads or used as mini wrappers for food. It makes a very fancy edible plate for canapes!

While it is also called betel leaves, it is not the same as the betel leaf (Piper betel) which is most often chewed with the betel nut (from the palm Areca catechu). La lot is less intense in flavour.

Grow La lot under trees as a living groundcover, it likes to be kept moist but not boggy. It doesn’t hug the ground - growing up to about 70cm high but will still protect your soil.

shade - part shade, moist but well drained, ground cover to 70cm