Alpinia polyantha D. Fang

Medicinal.

Rhizomes creeping, thick. Pseudostems to 6 m. Leaf sheath longitudinally rough lined, densely tomentose; ligule 2-cleft, 1--2 cm, tomentose; petiole 1--9 cm, tomentose; leaf blade lanceolate or elliptic, to 1 m × 25 cm, glabrous or abaxially tomentose, base cuneate, margin long ciliate, apex acuminate. Panicles erect, 35--60 × 7--9 cm, tomentose; branches 0.5--3 cm, 5--8-flowered; involucral bracts oblong-lanceolate, ca. 27 × 5.5 cm; bracteoles oblong to oblanceolate, ca. 1.2 cm × 3--7 mm, membranous. Pedicel 1--10 mm. Calyx red, 0.9--1.4 cm, split on 1 side, apex 3-toothed. Corolla tube equaling calyx; lobes oblong, 1.3--1.7 cm × ca. 5 mm. Lateral staminodes red, horn-shaped, ca. 6 mm. Labellum suborbicular to oblong, ca. 2.3 × 1.8--2.2 cm, midvein yellowish, with a few purple lines on both sides near base, apex acute, 2-toothed. Stamen ca. 2.8 cm; anther 8--9 mm; connective appendage tongue-shaped, ca. 2 mm. Ovary densely hirsute. Capsule globose, 0.9--1.4 cm in diam., hairy, apex with persistent calyx. Fl. May--Jun, fr. Oct--Nov. 2 n = 48*.

* Forests. Guangxi, Yunnan.