Herbs , annual or perennial, erect, decumbent, or prostrate, terrestrial or epiphytic, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes glandular-dotted. Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, glabrous or pubescent, or glandular. Leaf blade conspicuously or inconspicuously veined, lateral veins ascending-arching, or inconspicuous, tertiary veins apparently absent or very faint. Spikes terminal, terminal and axillary, or opposite leaves, densely to loosely flowered. Flowers sessile, borne on surface or in pitlike depressions of rachis, floral bracts glabrous or glandular-dotted; stamens 2, attached at base of ovary; stigma 1, sometimes cleft. Fruits sessile or stipitate, globose, ovoid, oblong, or pyriform, surface warty, minutely reticulate, or faintly striate, ± viscid; beak mammiform or elongate, straight, bent, or hooked.

Many species of Peperomia are used as houseplants, greenhouse plants, and, in warm regions, garden plants.

In addition to the species below, Peperomia simplex Hamilton has been attributed to southern Florida, but no verifying specimens have been seen. A single specimen of Peperomia emarginella (Swartz ex Wikström) C. de Candolle is in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. The specimen may be from southeastern United States.