Bark
It has a thick underground rhizome and leafy pseudostems formed by overlapping leaf sheaths.
Curcuma aromatica
Syn. Curcuma zedoaria
IUCN Red List
Not Evaluated
(NE)
Local name
- Wild turmeric (Hindi)
- Jangli haldi (Hindi)
- Zedoari (Gujarati)
Herb type
Evergreen
Deciduous
Family: Zingiberaceae
1m
Indicated uses
Medicinal
Edible
Ornamental
Avenue
Other
Flowering & fruiting
Flowering
Fruiting
Key characters
Leaves
Leaves are broad and very decorative, elliptic, 3-4 ft long, and 20 cm wide, leaf-stalk being as long as the blade.
Flower
Flowers are pinkish white in color, with an orange lip. The stalk grows to about 8 to 10 inches tall, and is crowned with enlarged colored bracts tipped with pink.
Fruit / Seeds
Fruit is a capsule containing seeds.
Did you know?
Most plants grow leaves to photosynthesize energy before yielding a bloom, but Curcuma aromatica does the exact opposite. After a winter dormancy, the plant shoots up vivid pink and yellow flowering stalks directly from the bare earth in early spring.
Distribution
Indian Subcontinent to S. Central China and N. Indo-China, Cambodia, China Southeast, Hainan, Thailand