Amomum dealbatum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Amomum dealbatum Roxb.

Family: Zingiberaceae

Synonyms

• Amomum maximum Roxb. sensu Backer & Ochse.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: resah, wresah (Javanese), hanggasa (Sundanese).

Distribution

Indonesia (Java); wild and cultivated.

Uses

The fruits are eaten raw, cooked or candied. The fresh, sweet, juicy aril around ripe seeds is considered a delicacy. Young shoots, young inflorescences and young fruits are eaten as vegetables cooked with rice.

Observations

• Robust perennial herb, up to 3 m tall, with thick rhizome.
• Leaves ellipic-lanceolate, 50-100 cm × 10-18 cm, fragrant when bruised.
• Fruit berry-like, crowded in spiciform racemes, ovoid to ovoid-oblong, 3-5 cm × 2-3 cm, fleshy, with 7-11 prominent ribs, greenish.
• Seeds ovoid-globose, up to 5 mm × 3 mm, blackish-brown, almost entirely enclosed by a greyish-white, juicy, pulpy aril.

Scattered in forests, especially on moist humus-rich soils. Propagation by root-bearing tips of the rhizome.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., 1963 1968. Flora of Java. 3 Volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands.

• Ochse, J.J., 1927. Indische vruchten [Indonesian fruits]. Volkslectuur, Weltevreden. 330 pp.

• Ochse, J.J. & Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., 1980. Vegetables of the Dutch East Indies. 2nd ed. Asher & Co, Amsterdam. 1016 pp.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen