Zingiberaceae

Ginger family
Temporal range:
Red torch ginger (Etlingera elatior)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Zingiberaceae
Martinov[2]
Type genus
Zingiber
Boehm.
Genera[3]

58 – see text

Zingiberaceae, the ginger family, is a family of flowering plants containing 58 genera and about 1600 described species distributed globally in the tropics and subtropics.[4][5] They are aromatic perennial herbs with creeping rhizomes, sometimes tuberous. Basal leaf sheathing forms a pseudostem taller than their true stems which emerge unbranched. Flowers are typically radial and inflorescence is raceme. Fruit is typically a dry capsule and seeds are arillate.[6]

Many of the family's species are important ornamental, spice, or medicinal plants. Ornamental genera include the shell gingers (Alpinia), Curcuma, Hedychium, Kaempferia, and torch-gingers (Etlingera). Spices include ginger (Zingiber officinale), Thai ginger (Alpinia galanga and others), melegueta pepper (Aframomum melegueta), myoga (Zingiber mioga), korarima (Aframomum corrorima), turmeric (Curcuma), and cardamom (Amomum and Elettaria species).[7]

Ancient fossils and phylogenetics indicate the Zingiberaceae evolved in Africa during the mid-Cretaceous period. The dispersal of these plants across Asia, the Americas and Australia followed the expansion of tropical rain forest habitat soon after this period.

Evolution

The Zingiberaceae family has evolved four subfamilies since the origin of their common ancestor during the mid-Cretaceous period.[8] The earliest known fossils of the family belong to the Campanian age (late-Cretaceous) and are from the genera Spirematospermum in Germany,Tricostatocarpon and Striatornata in Mexico, and Momordiocarpon in India.[9][10] Spirematospermum chandlerae from the Santonian of North Carolina was previously classified in the Zingiberaceae, but more recent studies support it belonging to the Musaceae.[11][1]

Morphology

Leaves and stems

Members of the family are small to large herbaceous plants with distichous leaves connected to basal sheaths that overlap to form a pseudostem, or 'false stem'. True erect vegetative stems are short, thin-walled and always unbranched. Horizontal underground stems are rhizomes, see description below. Leaves are alternate, 2-ranked, entire, elliptic, with prominent midribs.[12][6]

Flowers

Flowers are hermaphroditic, usually strongly zygomorphic, in raceme 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: in the inner whorl, median posterior. The ovary is inferior and topped by two nectaries, the stigma is funnel-shaped and appears on top of the anthers. Three carpels always within 3-locule ovary during early development.[6]

Fruit and seeds

Fruit is a capsule, usually dry, sometimes a fleshy berry. Seeds can be few-many, typically with an aril, often lobed or lacerated.[12][6]

Rhizomes and roots

Most genera have large, fleshy rhizomes which provide nutrient storage as a sympodial horizontal stem. Rhizomes vary in their branching across genera; genera with smaller rhizomes often display large starch-filled tuberous roots. Unbranched stilt roots can be found in tropical taxa supporting the rhizome growth above ground.[6]

Pollination

Plants within the ginger family can propagate naturally asexually via their rhizomes, or they can reproduce sexually through pollination. Birds and bees are the major pollinators described pollinating Zingiberaceae in Asia, with a larger portion of bee pollinator-interactions observed. Roughly 30% of Zingiberaceae pollinators found during a 2023 review were blue-banded bees and halictid bees.[13]

Distribution and ecology

Zingiberaceae family members are found primarily in the tropical and subtropical regions of south and Southeast Asia, however, their entire distribution spans across Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas. Most species can be found in forests and around 20 species are cultivated for domestic use.

The current distribution of the subfamilies Alpinioideae, Zingiberoideae, Siphonochiloideae and Tamijioideae reflects their varying lineage ages. Alpinioideae, Zingiberoideae, and Tamijioideae are all found in the tropical or equatorial regions of Asia, whereas Siphonochiloideae only grows in the African tropics. The shift in distribution from Africa to Asia likely took place in the late-Cretaceous period as global climate shifts of warming temperatures facilitated the expansion of tropical rain forests. [14]

Different genera show variance in their distribution across forested habitats and cultivated areas. A report in Thailand showed the genera Globba, Curcuma, and Kaempferia represented high diversity in both habitat types, whereas genera such as Cornukaempferia and Hedychium were absent in the forest.

The plants are either self-supporting or epiphytic.

Human uses and history

Supporting humans through food, spices, medicine, ornamentation, cosmetics, and various socio-religious activities, the Zingiberaceae family has been used across ancient traditional and modern societies. The rhizome is characteristically known for its use as a spice and for its medicinal antioxidant properties. Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe), turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), Javanese ginger (Curcuma zanthorrhiza Roxb.), and Thai ginger (Alpinia galanga L.) are a few of the many species which contain either of the bioactive compounds ginger or curcuminoid, both of which are used for therapeutic affects as anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial agents. Many commercially and culturally important aromatic medicinal plants in this family are native to India, including Alpinia calcarata and a wide diversity of 40 Curcuma species. In regions, such as Saraburi Province, Thailand, where many species of the Zingiberaceae are home to, these plants have cultivated rich cultural traditions and economic growth, propelling a need for their habitat conservation.[14][15]

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

Genera

As of June 2025, Plants of the World Online accepts the following 58 genera:[3]

Taxonomy

Cladogram: Phylogeny of Zingiberales[16]
Zingiberales
Zingiberineae
Zingiberariae

Zingiberaceae

Costaceae

Cannariae

Phylogenetic tree of the family

Subdivisions

Zingiberaceae
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. ^ a b "Zingiberales". www.mobot.org. Retrieved 2023-06-18.
  2. ^ 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. hdl:10654/18083.
  3. ^ a b "Zingiberaceae Martinov". Plants of the World Online. Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2025. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ "Zingiberaceae". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. 2025. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d e Kubitzki, Klaus, ed. (1998). "Zingiberaceae". Flowering Plants, Monocotyledons : Alismatanae and Commelinanae (except Gramineae). The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. 4. Berlin: Springer. pp. 474–495. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-03531-3. ISBN 978-3-662-03531-3.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Saha, Kishan; Sinha, Rabindra Kumar; Sinha, Sangram (19 December 2019). "Distribution, Cytology, Genetic Diversity and Molecular phylogeny of selected species of Zingiberaceae – A Review". Journal of Botanical Taxonomy and Geobotany – via Wiley Online Library.
  9. ^ Smith, Selena Y.; Iles, William J. D.; Benedict, John C.; Specht, Chelsea D. (2 August 2018). "Building the monocot tree of death: Progress and challenges emerging from the macrofossil‐rich Zingiberales". American Journal of Botany. 105 (8): 1389–1400. doi:10.1002/ajb2.1123. ISSN 0002-9122. PMID 30071130. S2CID 51909421.
  10. ^ Smith, Selena Y.; Kapgate, Dashrath K.; Robinson, Shannon; Srivastava, Rashmi; Benedict, John C.; Manchester, Steven R. (2021-02-01). "Fossil Fruits and Seeds of Zingiberales from the Late Cretaceous–Early Cenozoic Deccan Intertrappean Beds of India". International Journal of Plant Sciences. 182 (2): 91–108. doi:10.1086/711474. ISSN 1058-5893. S2CID 231875495.
  11. ^ Burgos-Hernández, Mireya; Pozo, Carmen; González, Dolores (20 December 2018). "Evolutionary history of Musaceae: ancient distribution and the rise of modern lineages". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 189 (1): 23–25. doi:10.1093/botlinnean/boy070.
  12. ^ a b "Zingiberaceae". Jepson eFlora. University of California.
  13. ^ Appalasamy, S; Arumugan, N; Pasupuleti, V R; Subramaniam, S; Kumaran, J V; Nor, M M; Salam, M A (1 June 2023). "An overview of the pollination interactions between the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) and insects in Asia" (PDF). European Journal of Entymology.
  14. ^ a b Zhao, Joan-Li; Yu, Xiang-Qin (18 May 2022). "Historical biogeography of the gingers and its implications for shifts in tropical rain forest habitats". Journal of Biogeography. 49 (7) – via Wiley Online Library.
  15. ^ Boonma, Thawatphong; Saensouk, Surapon; Saensouk, Piyaporn (2024). "Biogeography, Conservation Status, and Traditional Uses of Zingiberaceae in Saraburi Province, Thailand, with Kaempferia chaveerachiae sp. nov". Horticulturae. 10 (9): 934. doi:10.3390/horticulturae10090934.
  16. ^ Sass et al. 2016.

Bibliography

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