Bitter Ginger

In Asia, the rhizomes of Zingiber zerumbet are used as a spice in much the same way as those of Z. officinale. In North America, escaped populations are known only from two sites in Gainesville, Florida.

Widely cultivated, medicinal.

Leaf blades oblanceolate or narrowly elliptical, 30--32 ´ 6--7 cm (smaller distally). Inflorescences erect, 7--11 ´ [3--]5--6 cm; bracts of main axis green when young, becoming red; proximal bracts reniform or very broadly ovate, concave, 2--3 ´ 3--4 cm, apex broadly rounded; distal bracts smaller but otherwise similar to proximal bracts, ca. 1 ´ 2 cm. Flowers: perianth and staminodes pale yellow.

Rhizomes yellowish inside, tuberous. Pseudostems 0.6--2 m. Leaves sessile or shortly petiolate; ligule entire, 1.5--2 cm; leaf blade lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 15--40 × 3--8 cm, glabrescent or abaxially somewhat pilose, base narrowed, apex acuminate. Inflorescences arising from rhizomes, conical or ovoid-oblong, 6--15 × 3.5--5 cm, apex obtuse; peduncle 10--30 cm, scalelike sheaths 5--7; bracts closely imbricate, green when young, red when old, slightly hairy, slimy adaxially, margin membranous; bracteoles ca. 1.5 cm. Calyx 1.2--2 cm, membranous, split on 1 side, apex 3-toothed. Corolla tube 2--3 cm, slender; lobes pale yellow, lanceolate, central one 1.5--2.5 cm. Labellum pale yellow, ca. 1.5 × 2.5 cm; central lobe suborbicular or subobovate, 1.5--2 × ca. 1.5 cm, apex emarginate; lateral lobes obovate, ca. 1 cm, free nearly to base. Stamen ca. 1 cm; connective appendage beaklike, ca. 8 mm. Ovary ca. 4 mm, glabrous. Capsule ellipsoid, 0.8--1.2 cm. Seeds black. Fl. Jul--Sep, fr. Oct. 2 n = 22*.

Himalaya, India, Ceylon, Malay Peninsula; widely cultivated in Old World tropics.

introduced; Fla.; native, Asia (India and the Malay Peninsula).

150 m

Flowering fall (Oct).

Disturbed areas; 50m.

Moist places in forests. Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan [Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].

Amomum zerumbet Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 1. 1753 F I

Amomum zerumbet Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 1. 1753.