972

        Hedychium coccineum (Buch.-Ham.) ex Smith

Synonym	:	Gandasulium angustifolium (Roxb.) Kuntze
Family	:	Zingiberaceae
Local name	:	English-Red Butterfly Ginger
Flowering and fruiting period	:	July-October
Distribution	:	India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka
Distribution in Kerala	:	Kozhikkode
Habitat	:	Cultivated as garden plant
Endemic/Exotic	:	Exotic
Uses	:	Grown as garden plant
Key botanical characters: Perennial rhizomatous herb, root stock horizontal, pale brown inside. Leafy shoot cylindric, clothed by purple sheaths, 1.5-2 m tall. Leaves sessile, lamina oblong-lanceolate, deep green above and purple beneath, glabrous; ligule 2 cm, membranous base deep purple, densely hairy, apex pink, puberulous. Inflorescence a terminal spike. Bracts lax, 30-56 in number. Outer bract coriaceous, tubular, pubescent externally, green towards the base, apex brownish green; inner bract oblong outer surface hairy, green. Flowers 5-6 in each bract, 4-5 cm long, showy, dull orange-red. Calyx tubular, apex light green. Corolla tube equal to calyx, glabrous. Labellum 1 × 1.5 cm, apex bilobed, each lobe orbicular, glabrous. Lateral staminoides petalloid, orange-red.