Piperales is an order of flowering plants (4,170 recognized species).

It necessarily includes the family Piperaceae but other taxa have been included or disincluded variously over time.

Well-known plants which may be included in this order include black pepper, kava, the many Peperomias, pepper elder, lizard's tail, birthwort, and wild ginger.

[4] The two perianthless families Piperaceae and Saururaceae are mainly herbaceous plants possessing highly reduced flowers.

[5][6] In the APG IV system, of 2016, this order is placed in the clade magnoliids and is circumscribed as follows:[7] Canellales Aristolochiaceae Piperaceae Saururaceae Laurales Magnoliales This is an expansion from the APG system, of 1998, which used the same placement (in the magnoliids) but used this circumscription: The Cronquist system, of 1981, placed the order in the subclass Magnoliidae of class Magnoliopsida [=dicotyledons] and used this circumscription: The Engler system, in its update of 1964, placed the order in subclassis Archichlamydeae in class Dicotyledoneae [=dicotyledons] and used this circumscription: The Wettstein system, latest version published in 1935, assigned the order to the Monochlamydeae in subclass Choripetalae of class Dicotyledones.