- Plants
- ›Vascular Plants
- ›flowering plants
- ›monocots
- ›gingers, bananas, and allies
- ›Spiral Gingers and Allies
- ›Hellenia
Crêpe ginger
Hellenia speciosa
Hellenia speciosa, or crêpe ginger, is a species of flowering plant in the family Costaceae. It is a herbaceous perennial rhizomatous geophyte which is also known by Cheilocostus speciosus and other botanical names.
It is native to southeast Asia and surrounding regions, from India to southern China, Taiwan, Indochina, Malesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Queensland, Australia. It is especially common on the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is also reportedly naturalised in Puerto Rico, Mauritius, Réunion, Fiji, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Belize, Melanesia, Micronesia, and the West Indies. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental.
From the article Hellenia speciosa on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Hellenia speciosa and other members of the Costaceae differ from gingers by having only one row of spirally arranged leaves. The species reproduces vegetatively by rhizome, and birds disperse the seeds when they feed on the fruits. The flowers have only two stamens, one is functional, with a single locule, while the other is petaloid, forming a white, bell-shaped trumpet around the fertile one. The true petals, also white, are small. The plant can reach 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in height. This plant is cultivated in South Asia and Southeast Asia for its medicinal uses, and is cultivated elsewhere as an ornamental. In some areas Hellenia speciosa is introduced and has become an invasive species.
Range & habitat
The species' habitat is low-lying areas in tropical forests and roadside ditches. Flowering starts after onset of the rainy season.
Wikipedia: “Habitat”
What it does
Caterpillars of the restricted demon butterfly (Notocrypta curvifascia) feed on crêpe ginger.
Wikipedia: “Ecology”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Hellenia speciosa in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 764909.