Hedychium coronarium (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Hedychium coronarium J. König

Protologue: Observ. bot. 3: 73 (1783).

• Hedychium flavescens Carey ex Roscoe (1824).

• Common ginger lily, garland flower, butterfly lily (En)
• Indonesia: gondasuli (Javanese), gandasoli (Sundanese), Mandasuli (Balinese)
• Malaysia: gandasuli, suli
• Philippines: kamia (Tagalog, Bikol, Cebu Bisaya), banay, katkatan (Bisaya)
• Thailand: mahaahong (central), tha haan, hun kaeo (northern)
• Vietnam: bạch diệp, ngải tiên.

Native of the Himalayas and southern China, now with a pantropical distribution, cultivated and sometimes naturalized, also in southern Africa and South America.

In the Philippines and the Moluccas, a decoction of the basal part of the stem is gargled for tonsilitis, or a part of the stem may be chewed. In Hawaii, the chewed stem is applied to infected nostrils. In Bali (Indonesia) and India, the ground rhizome is used as a febrifuge. In Thailand, boiled leaves are applied to stiff and sore joints.

In Hawaii, China and Brazil, the essential oil from the flowers of H. coronarium is a source of high-quality perfume, but other Hedychium are also used for the same purpose. The flowers are extensively used in flower garlands in Hawaii and Japan.

• A stout terrestrial herb, 1-2.5 m tall, rhizome fleshy, 2.5-5 cm in diameter, strongly aromatic.
• Leaves large, oblong to lanceolate, 16-60 cm × 5-10 cm, glabrous above, glabrous or sparsely hairy beneath, ligule up to 3 cm long, bilobed; spike obovoid to rhomboid, 5-20 cm long, rachis concealed, bracts ovate to obovate, up to 5 cm long, closely imbricating, green, each with 2-5 flowers.
• Flower showy, fragrant, white or pale yellow, calyx tubular, cleft on one side, up to 4 cm long, green, corolla tube up to 8 cm long, lobes linear-lanceolate, about 4 cm long, labellum obcordate or obovate, 5-6 cm wide, white or pale yellow with darker yellow spot at base, narrowed at base, lateral staminodes oblong-lanceolate, 3-5 cm long, clawed, fertile stamen not exceeding labellum, anther strongly curved, 1.5 cm long.
• Capsule oblong, glabrous, valves orange-yellow inside, many-seeded; aril red.

H. coronarium is often cultivated as a garden plant but sometimes escapes and can be found growing along rivers, in swampy areas, open wet locations and the edges of shaded secondary forests, from sea-level up to 2500 m altitude. H. coronarium is rather variable in its flower colour and shape of the floral parts. The numerous forms can probably best be regarded as varieties e.g. var. coronarium (flowers white), var. flavescens (flowers yellow) and var. chrysoleucum (Hook.) Hook.f. (flowers yellow but plant slender).

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• Hedychium

• Halijah Ibrahim