Alpinia
| Alpinia | |
|---|---|
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| Alpinia zerumbet | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| (unranked): | Commelinids |
| Order: | Zingiberales |
| Family: | Zingiberaceae |
| Subfamily: | Alpinioideae |
| Tribe: | Alpinieae |
| Genus: |
Alpinia Roxb., 1810 |
| Species | |
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See text. |
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See text.
Alpinia is a genus of flowering plants in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is named for Prospero Alpini, a 17th-century Italian botanist who specialized in exotic plants. Species are native to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, where they occur in tropical and subtropical climates. Several species are cultivated as ornamental plants. Species of the genus are known generally as ginger-lilies.
These herbs lack true stems, but have pseudostems usually up to about 3 meters long which are composed of the overlapping leaf sheaths. A few species have been known to reach 8 meters. They grow from thick rhizomes. The leaves are lance-shaped to oblong. The inflorescence takes the form of a spike, a panicle, or a raceme. It may be hooded in bracts and bracteoles. The flower has a shallowly toothed calyx which is sometimes split on one side. The flower corolla is a cylindrical tube with three lobes at the mouth, the middle lobe larger and hoodlike in some taxa. There is one fertile stamen and two staminodes, which are often joined into a petal-like labellum, a structure that is inconspicuous in some species and quite showy in others. The fruit is a rounded, dry or fleshy capsule. The plants are generally aromatic due to their essential oils.
Most Alpinia are plants of forest understory habitat. Most are pollinated by large bees, but some are pollinated by birds and bats.
This is the largest genus in the ginger family, with about 230 species. A number of those are commonly grown for their flowers, and others are used as spices.
Species include:
...
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