Zingiber ottensii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Zingiber ottensii Valeton

Family: Zingiberaceae

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: panglai hideung (Sundanese), bunglai hantu (eastern Sumatra)
• Peninsular Malaysia: lampoyang hitam, kunyit hitam, berseh hitam
• Thailand: phlai dam (northern), puu loei dam (northern), phlai muang (Bangkok)

Distribution

Indonesia (Java, Sumatra), Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand.

Uses

The rhizomes are pungent. In traditional medicine they are pounded into a poultice and used by women after childbirth, or are added to a mixture to make a sedative lotion or a tonic. A popular plant, cultivated in home gardens.

Observations

• Rhizomatous, perennial herb with leafy shoots up to 1.5 m tall. Rhizome purplish inside and with a very pungent smell.
• Leaves elliptical, 35-40 cm × 6-8 cm.
• Inflorescence spiciform and on separate scape 25-40 cm long; bracts obovate, 4 cm long, convex with incurved tips, bright red; bracteoles linear, 3 cm long; spike ellipsoidal to cylindrical, 10-12 cm × 4 cm.
• Calyx 2.3 cm long, white; corolla 5.7 cm long, cream to yellow; labellum 5.5 cm long, pale yellow with red-brown markings, or faintly pink densely interspersed with large and small pale yellow spots; midlobe almost circular and 2 cm in diameter.
• Fruit a red cylindrical capsule.

Z. ottensii is only known from cultivation and can easily be distinguished by its purplish rhizome flesh.

Selected sources

• 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.

• 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.

• Theilade, I., 1996. Revision of the genus Zingiber in Peninsular Malaysia. The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 48: 207-236.

• Valeton, T., 1918. New notes on the Zingiberaceae of Java and the Malayan Archipelago. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg, Séries 2, 27: 1-227.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen