Statue of Unity – Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat Rain Forest Ektanagar

Kaempferia galanga

Syn. Alpinia sessilis

IUCN Red List Data Deficient (DD)

Local name

  • Aromatic Ginger (English)
  • Chandramula (Hindi)

Herb type

Evergreen Deciduous
Family: Zingiberaceae
0.1m

Indicated uses

Medicinal Edible Ornamental Avenue Other

Flowering & fruiting

Flowering Fruiting

Key characters

Bark

Underground rhizomes rather than a woody trunk. The plant has a very short pseudostem, largely concealed among the overlapping leaf sheaths.

Kaempferia galanga leaves

Leaves

Thick rounded leaves that lay flat on the ground.

Kaempferia galanga flower

Flower

In summer, one or two flowers are produced successively from the centre of the growing tip. The flowers are white with a purple lip.

Kaempferia galanga fruit / seeds

Fruit / Seeds

Fruit is a capsule; seeds are small. Fruiting is less frequently recorded in cultivated plants.

Kaempferia galanga

Did you know?

The genus Kaempferia is named after the 17th-century German naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer. Unlike true gingers (Zingiber), plants in this genus are entirely stemless geophytes.

Distribution

World map showing distribution

China (S. Yunnan) and Indo-China, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines