| Monocotyledon | Literature for Hedychium flavescens
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2019. |
| Zingiberaceae -- The Ginger Family | Bibliography |
| Hedychium flavescens | |
Common name(s): ginger lily, `awapuhi melemele, cream ginger, yellow ginger, yellow ginger lily |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Coarse, perennial herb with leafy
shoots 1.5‒2 m tall (rarely taller), rhizomes ca. 3 cm in diameter, branched,
internally pale and fragrant. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves oblong to lanceolate, 20‒45(‒60) cm long, 5‒10(‒12.5) cm wide, adaxial surface glabrous, abaxial surface sparsely pubescent, apex acuminate, sessile, ligule membranous, (1‒)2‒4 cm long, entire, pubescent,
sheaths glabrous. |
|
| Flowers |
Inflorescences erect, basically ovoid, 15‒20 cm long, ca. 8 cm wide, primary bracts green, membranous along margin, loosely imbricate, broadly ovate to elliptic, 5‒8 cm long, ca. 3.5 cm
wide, apex usually obtuse, pubescent to glabrate, rachis permanently concealed, cincinni usually 4-flowered. Flowers fragrant, calyx cylindrical, 4‒5 cm long, pubescent or rarely glabrate; corolla yellow,
tube slender, 8‒9 cm long, lobes linear to linear lanceolate, 4‒5 cm long; labellum often centrally flushed with dark yellow, broadly obovate, about as long as staminodes, (2.5‒)3‒4 cm wide, base tapered into a claw; stamen yellow, about as long as labellum or slightly longer; lateral
staminodes white, spatulate to lanceolate, (2.5‒)4‒6 cm long. |
|
| Fruit |
Fruit not seen. |
|
| Seeds |
Seeds subglobose, brown, ca. 4‒4.5 mm long. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 34, 50, 51. |
|
| Contributor |
Nancy Khan |
