Zingiber officinale

Rhizome is thick and hard, laterally compressed, ca. 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter, light brown, pale yellow inside, with fine fibrous roots in top layers of soil. Leafy shoots are annual, erect, ca. 50 cm tall, 5 mm in diameter, formed of long leaf sheaths, glabrous except for short hairs near base of each leaf blade, usually bearing ca. 8-12 distichous leaves. Lamina is thin, subsessile, linear-lanceolate, upto 3 x 25 cm. Flowers are borne in an up to 7 x 2.5 cm spike terminating a leafless stem that arises direct from rootstock. Bracts are ovate or elliptic, one flower produced in axil of each bract. Calyx is thin, tubular, spathaceous,ca. 1 cm long, 3-toothed. Corolla tube is up to 2.5 cm long with 3 yellowish lobes and a roundish, purple labellum (lip) which has a large central lobe and small side lobes. Connective of the stamen is prolonged into a slender curved appendage that surrounds the upper part of style. Fruits, which are seldom produced, are thin-walled, 3-valved capsules, with small black arillate seeds.