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Zingiber

Mill. (1754)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Monocots Order: Zingiberales Family: Zingiberaceae Genus: Zingiber

Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Erect, terrestrial, robust herbs.

Stems: Rhizomes creeping, robust, fleshy, aromatic.

Roots: Fibrous root system.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate, distichous. Margins entire. Lateral veins parallel, diverging from prominent midrib. Sessile or subsessile, petioles swollen and pulvinus-like. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in thyrses, terminal on shoots usually enveloped by bladeless leaf sheaths, rarely terminal on normal leafy shoots, spicate, cylindrical to ovoid–globose, primary bracts numerous, imbricate, each subtending a single flower (rarely 2–4 flowers), bracteoles thin, persistent, open to the base. Flowers bisexual (perfect), zygomorphic, pedicellate; Floral tube funnelform. Calyx tubular, 3-lobed,the lobes unequal. Corolla adnate with the stamens into a floral tube, distally 3-lobed; corolla lobes unequal, the lateral lobes often connate by their adjacent sides and adnate to labellum. Stamens 5, in 2 whorls, only the posterior one of the inner whorl fertile, the other 2 members of inner whorl connate to form a highly variable, often conspicuous labellum; labellum (staminodia) petaloid, ovate or orbicular, 3-lobed; other staminodes absent; filament broad, short; anther much longer than the filament, narrow, the anther crest elongate, wrapped around the upper curved portion of the style. Ovary inferior, with 2 variously developed apical nectary glands, 3-celled, sometimes incompletely so, rarely 1-celled, placentation axile, parietal (or essentially basal), or rarely free-central; ovules usually numerous; style filiform, often enveloped in a groove of the fertile stamen and embraced by the thecae; stigma various, often papillose and protruding beyond anther. Styles exserted well beyond fertile part of anther; stigma not expanded.

Fruit: Capsules subtrigonous. Seeds black; with a lacerate; white aril.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Island Status

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Notes

  • A genus of 80-100 species distributed throughout tropical Asia from eastern Asia throughout Indo-Malesia to northern Australia. Name derived from the Greek zingiberis, the name of an Arabian spice.
  • Description digitized by Tim
  • Description digitized from the Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii

Bibliography

Name Published In: Gard. Dict. Abr. ed. 4: s.p. (1754)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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