usually caulescent aromatic herbs with thickened rhizomes and secretory cells with ethereal oils; vessel-elements in roots and sometimes also in stems etc.; aerial stem short inflorescence-stems with scale-leaves, sterile foliage-stems with lanceolate leaves
Distribution
tropical, mainly Indomalaysia
Floral characters
bisexual, zygomorphic, insect-poll, usually ephemeral, solit. or in cymes in axils of bracts, yellow, yellow-brown, or redlike, sometimes on a short seperate sheath-covered stem from rhiz; K 3 not petaloid, C (3) with short lobes the median adaxial often larger than the rest, A 1 (median adaxial inner of a presumed 3+3 now rep. by consp. labellum), G (3) epigynous, (1-) 3- loc. with (parietal or) axil placentation and usually apical nectaries and +/- many anatropous, bitegmic ovules
Leaf characters
spirally arranged or distichous with usually open sheath, smooth leaf lamina, simple or pinnate, the sheath arranged so as to form a pseudostem, +/- petiole and with simple lamina rolled from 1 side to another, usually with prominent midrib and costae pinnate-parallel; adaxial ligule usually at junction of sheath and lamina
Stipules
absent
Fruit characters
loculicidal capsule or indehiscent (fleshy or dry), seeds with arils, embryo straight in copious starchy endosperm and perisperm
Glands
absent
Hairs
absent
Latex
absent
Uses
Zingiber officinales, Curcuma domestica
Chemical characters
many ethereal oils
Distribution maps
(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):
