Mountain pepper or Tasmanian native pepper Tasmania Lanceolata is a shrub that grows in the alpine regions of Tasmania and southeast mainland Australia. It thrives in the type of cool, wet habitats that can be found in mountain gullies. The native plant produces aromatic leaves, and during the autumn months, the female species develops small fleshy blackberries on its distinctive reddish stems. Both the leaves and berries can be dried and used as a cooking spice, and when milled, the hardened berries make for a terrific substitute for conventional pepper.
Compared to our everyday pepper, however, mountain pepper has more of a herbal dimension, and packs more of a spicery, sharper, hotter punch.
Tasmanian Aboriginal people have been using pepper berry for thousands of years for both culinary and medicinal purposes. They used it to add flavour and heat to their food as well as a treatment for various ailments, including toothaches, stomach problems, and colds.
Growth habit prefers part shade but will cope with full sun in cooler parts of the state.
- Jack Smith
Conservation & Land Management Trainee
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