Amomum squarrosum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction

Protologue: Journ. Roy. As. Soc. Straits Br. 57: 104 (1910).

Vernacular names

Peninsular Malaysia.

Flowers are made into a poultice which is applied to the head to treat giddiness.

A large herb up to 400 cm tall, with rhizome sometimes supported by stilt roots, leafy shoots close together.
Leaves narrowly lanceolate, up to 55 cm × 6 cm.
Inflorescence oblong, up to 10 cm long, on peduncle up to 15 cm long, bracts about 2 cm long, almost persistent, bracteoles up to 2 cm long, funnel-shaped.
Flowers with corolla tube shorter than calyx, labellum distinctly 3-lobed, white with a yellow median band flanked by red lines, anther with a 3-lobed appendage.
Fruit about 1.3 cm in diameter, smooth or slightly ribbed towards the apex.

A. squarrosum occurs locally in the lowland, up to 300 m altitude.

Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240. Vol. 2 (I- Z) pp. 1241-2444.
Holttum, R.E., 1950. The Zingiberaceae of the Malay Peninsula. Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore 13(1): 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.