Amomum ochreum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction

Family: Zingiberaceae

Vernacular names

Peninsular Malaysia.

The seeds are used as a substitute for true cardamom but they are reputed to be insipid.

Herb with underground rhizome emitting leafy shoots at 5-12 cm intervals and separate inflorescences. Leafy shoot 1-5 m tall, basal half covered with sheaths only.
Ligule unlobed, about 7 mm long; petiole 1-3 cm long; blade oblong, 40-52 cm × 8-10 cm, base rounded, apex with a point 5 cm or longer.
Inflorescence spike-like, 5 cm long at flowering, 10 cm when fruiting; peduncle 8-20 cm long.
Flower with obovate, 3-lobed labellum, about 3 cm × 3 cm, orange-yellow, with red veins and spots; anther appendage transversely oblong, about 1 cm × 3 mm, faintly red-spotted.
Fruit globose, 4.5 cm in diameter, with few blunt fleshy spines. Seed irregular, about 1 cm long, covered with a thin aril. ==A. ochreum== occurs rather commonly in the hills of Peninsular Malaysia at moderate altitudes.

Burkill, I.H., 1935. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2 volumes. Crown Agents for the Colonies, London, United Kingdom. 2402 pp. (slightly revised reprint, 1966. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.).

Holttum, R.E., 1950. The Zingiberaceae of the Malay Peninsula. The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 13: 1-249.

Ridley, H.N., 1922-1925. The flora of the Malay Peninsula. 5 volumes. Government of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States. L. Reeve & Co., London, United Kingdom.

P.C.M. Jansen