Curcuma longa

Primary rhizome at base of aerial stem is ovate or pear shaped, bearing many finger shaped secondary rhizomes. Rhizomes are brownish and scaly outside, bright orange inside, and have a characteristic odor and slightly bitter taste. Aerial shoots bear 6-10 leaves, surrounded by bladeless sheaths, the leaf sheaths forming a pseudostem. Leaf blades are lanceolate, acuminate, thin, usually up to 30 x 8 cm. Inflorescences are borne apically on leaf-shoots, 10-15 x 5-7, scape enclosed by leaf sheaths. Bracts are elliptic, acute, 5-6 cm long, upper sterile bracts white or streaked with green, pink-tipped in some cultivars, grading to light green bracts lower down. Flowers are in cincinni of 2 in axils ofbracts, ca. 5 cm long, zygomorphic, opening one at a time, short-lived. Calyx is short, unequally toothed. Corolla is tubular at base, upper half cup-shaped with 3 unequal lobes, whitish, thin, with a broad and thickened yellow band on the lip (labellum). C. longa is a sterile triploid which does not produce fruits.