Globba marantina (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Globba marantina L.

Family: Zingiberaceae

• Indonesia: kapulaga ambon, halia utan, bonelau (Moluccas)

• Philippines: barak (Tagalog), bangliu (Iloko), luyan-luyaan (Pangasinan)

• Vietnam: lô ba lùn

Probably originating from the Moluccas, now widely distributed from peninsular Thailand and the Philippines to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Possibly occurring also in Vietnam.

In the Moluccas the somewhat spicy bulbils are eaten fresh or dried, as a seasoning. They are also used in the same way as cardamom because of their pleasant, not pungent taste, and to stimulate appetite.

• Perennial herb, up to 50 cm tall, with tuberous roots.
• Leafy shoot with 8-15 leaves; sheath subglabrous, ligule 2 mm long and fringed with hairs, petiole of upper leaves distinct and 5 mm long; blade lanceolate, 15 cm × 4-5 cm, with short hairs below.
• Inflorescence compact, 1-4 cm long, hardly exserted beyond the leaf sheath; peduncle 1-3 cm long; sterile bracts 8-15, imbricating, green, lower ones large, up to 1.5-2.5 cm × 2 cm, upper ones smaller, usually each one bearing an axillary bulbil; bulbil narrowly ovoid to conical, 1 cm long, warty, consisting of a small shoot and a swollen root; rachis (seldom produced) 2-12 mm long, bearing 1-4 cincinni 2-3 mm apart; cincinni bearing up to 6 flowers; bracts similar to sterile bracts; bracteole about 1 cm long; flowers subsessile, dark yellow; calyx 9 mm long, 3-lobed, 2 long acute lobes, 1 short and blunt one; corolla tubular, 3-lobed, lobes 5-7 mm long, dorsal lobe hooded, lateral lobes concave; labellum 12 mm × 8 mm, orange, with a round, deeper orange spot; filament 2 cm long, anther 2.5 mm long.
• Fruits have never been observed.

G. marantina rarely flowers but produces bulbils abundantly, which serve for propagation. When it dies back seasonally, the rhizomes and bulbils remain dormant for about 5 months (October-March in Peninsular Malaysia), after which they germinate simultaneously. G. marantina favours open dry habitats and the bulbils can survive long adverse conditions. In Malaysia it is found in dry forested areas and on sandbanks, in Indonesia (Moluccas) it occurs in valleys, on banks and in sago plantations.

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters‑Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963), 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965), 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968), 761 pp.

• 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.).

• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd edition, 3 volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp. (3rd edition, 1950. van Hoeve, 's‑Gravenhage/Bandung, the Netherlands/Indonesia. 1660 pp.).

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

• Lim Siew-Ngo, 1972. Cytogenetics and taxonomy of the genus Globba L. (Zingiberaceae) in Malaya 1. Taxonomy. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 31: 243-269.

• Lim Siew-Ngo, 1972. Cytogenetics and taxonomy of the genus Globba L. (Zingiberaceae) in Malaya 4. Distribution in relation to polyploidy. The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 26: 115-126.

P.C.M. Jansen, K.N. Tyas, X.Y. Wolff