Zingiberaceae

Zingiberaceae (/ˌzɪndʒɪbɪˈreɪsii/) or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species[2] of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Many of the family's species are important ornamental, spice, or medicinal plants. Ornamental genera include the shell gingers (Alpinia), Siam or summer tulip (Curcuma alismatifolia), Globba, ginger lily (Hedychium), Kaempferia, torch-ginger Etlingera elatior, Renealmia, and ginger (Zingiber). Spices include ginger (Zingiber), galangal or Thai ginger (Alpinia galanga and others), melegueta pepper (Aframomum melegueta), myoga (Zingiber mioga), korarima (Aframomum corrorima), turmeric (Curcuma), and cardamom (Amomum, Elettaria).[3]

Ginger family
Red torch ginger (Etlingera elatior)
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Zingiberaceae
Martinov[1]
Type genus
Zingiber
Boehm.

Description

Members of the family are small to large herbaceous plants with distichous leaves with basal sheaths that overlap to form a pseudostem. The plants are either self-supporting or epiphytic. Flowers are hermaphroditic, usually strongly zygomorphic, in determinate cymose inflorescences, and subtended by conspicuous, spirally arranged bracts. The perianth is composed of two whorls, a fused tubular calyx, and a tubular corolla with one lobe larger than the other two. Flowers typically have two of their stamenoids (sterile stamens) fused to form a petaloid lip, and have only one fertile stamen. The ovary is inferior and topped by two nectaries, the stigma is funnel-shaped.

Some genera yield essential oils used in the perfume industry (Alpinia, Hedychium).

Taxonomy
Cladogram: Phylogeny of Zingiberales[4]
Zingiberales
Zingiberineae
Zingiberariae

Zingiberaceae

Costaceae

Cannariae

Cannaceae

Marantaceae

Strelitziineae

Lowiaceae

Strelitziaceae

Heliconiaceae

Musaceae

Phylogenetic tree of the family


Subdivisions
Zingiberaceae

Zingiberoideae

Alpinioideae

Siphonochiloideae

Tamijioideae

Curcuma longa
Elettaria cardamomum
Globba inflorescence.
Zingiber spectabile cultivar Beehive

Distribution

The Zingiberaceae have a pantropical distribution in the tropics of Africa, Asia, and the Americas, with their greatest diversity in South Asia.

References
  1. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x.
  2. Christenhusz, Maarten J.M.; Byng, James W. (20 May 2016). "The number of known plants species in the world and its annual increase". Phytotaxa. 261 (3): 201. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1.
  3. Chattopadhyay, Ishita; Biswas, Kaushik; Bandyopadhyay, Uday; Banerjee, Ranajit K. (2004). "Turmeric and curcumin: Biological actions and medicinal applications". Current Science. 87 (1): 44–53. JSTOR 24107978.
  4. Sass et al. 2016.

Bibliography
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