a family of perrenial, rhizomatous; understory herbs, terrestrial or sometimes epiphytic and characterized by the spiral arrangements of the leaves
Distribution
often in wet forests throughout the tropics worldwide pantropics; Costa Rica, Panama, West Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brasil
Floral characters
inflorescences, terminal, cone-like, condensed spike, bracts strongly overlapping and often brightly coloured, or rarely flowers solitary and axillary; flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, calyx tubula, shortly bi-trilobate, petals 3, basally united into a tube, stamen 1, often petaloid, staminodes 5, forming alarge tubular of spraeding, petaloid labellum with equal or exceeds the corolla, ovary inferior, (2-) 3- locular
Systematic remarks
see Zingiberaceae
Leaf characters
leaves simple, narrowly to broadly elliptic, sheaths closed, ligule truncate to bilobate;
Fruit characters
capsuse (2-) 3-locular, somewhat fleshy, crowned by the pursistent calyx, usually loculicidally dehiscent; needs numerous, aril white to yellow.
