Etlingera elatior
(torch ginger)

Preferred Common Name

• torch ginger

Other Scientific Names

• Achasma yunnanensis T.L. Wu & S.J. Chen
• Alpinia acrostachya Steud.
• Alpinia elatior Jack
• Alpinia magnifica Roscoe
• Alpinia speciosa (Blume) D.Dietr.
• Amomum magnificum (Roscoe) Benth. & Hook.f. ex B.D.Jacks.
• Amomum tridentatum (Kuntze) K.Schum.
• Bojeria magnifica (Roscoe) Raf.
• Cardamomum magnificum (Roscoe) Kuntze
• Cardamomum speciosum (Blume) Kuntze
• Cardamomum tridentatum Kuntze
• Diracodes javanica Blume
• Elettaria speciosa Blume
• Nicolaia elatior (Jack) Horan.
• Nicolaia imperialis Horan.
• Nicolaia intermedia Valeton
• Nicolaia magnifica (Roscoe) K.Schum. ex Valeton
• Nicolaia speciosa (Blume) Horan.
• Phaeomeria magnifica (Roscoe) K.Schum.
• Phaeomeria speciosa (Blume) Koord.

International Common Names

• English: Philippine waxflower; torch-ginger; wax-flower
• Spanish: boca de dragón; flor de cera
• Chinese: huo ju jiang

Local Common Names

• Colombia: bastón del Obispo; bastón del rey; heliconia bastón
• Costa Rica: bastón de emperador
• French Polynesia: 'awapuhi; opuhi
• French Polynesia/Marquesas: eka; pua vao
• Indonesia: bunga kecombrang; honge; kecombrang
• Malaysia: bunda kantan; kantan
• Puerto Rico: antorcha
• USA/Hawaii: ‘awapuhi ko‘oko‘o

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Monocotyledonae
•                     Order: Zingiberales
•                         Family: Zingiberaceae
•                             Genus: Etlingera
•                                 Species: Etlingera elatior

The family Zingiberaceae, with more than 1200 species, is the largest of eight families included in the order Zingiberales (Kress, 1990; Kress et al., 2002; Stevens, 2012). The ginger family has a pantropical distribution, with a centre of diversity in the Malesian biogeographic region (Kress, 1990; Kress et al., 2002; Stevens, 2012). The genus Etlingera includes approximately 110 species distributed in tropical and subtropical Indo-Malesia and tropical Australia (Stevens, 2012).

E. elatior is one of the species most commercialized as an ornamental in tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Ibrahim and Setyowati, 1999). Several forms of E. elatior have been observed in the wild and in cultivation. The forms with pink involucral bracts are normally consumed as a spice. The forms with red or deep red bracts and leaves that are permanently purplish underneath, are more commonly used as an ornamental or as cut flowers, although the pink-bracted ones are equally popular. The white-bracted form is very rare and occurs in the wild. There are two flower types, one with a white-edged labellum (the cultivated ones) and the other with a yellow-edged labellum which is considered the wild type (Ibrahim and Setyowati, 1999).

E. elatior is a coarse herb often growing in large colonies. Pseudostems (shoots) 3–6 m tall. Leaves numerous; ligule to 1.5 cm long, shortly 2-lobed, glabrous; petiole 1.5–4 cm long; leaf blades lanceolate, 38–85 x 8–18 cm, glabrous. Inflorescence a terminal, ovoid head of spirally imbricated flowers, surrounded at base by showy involucral bracts; peduncle 60–150 x 0.8–1.5 cm, clothed with green, glabrous sheaths; involucral bracts 3–6 x 2–3 cm, spreading, the upper obtuse to emarginate, the lower abruptly narrowed to a caudate tip, crimson-pink, glabrous; floral bracts similar to involucral bracts but pinkish, smaller; bracteoles tubular, approximately 2 cm long, unilaterally split; calyx 3–4 cm long, unilaterally split, the apex 3-toothed; corolla pink to red, sometimes white; labellum deep crimson with white or yellow margin; filament short, flat, whitish pubescent; anther red, longer than filament. Fruiting head greenish or reddish, globose, 2–2.5 cm in diameter, short-pubescent; seeds many, black (Acevedo-Rodríguez and Strong, 2005).

E. elatior has been actively introduced as an ornamental in gardens and yards throughout the tropics (Ibrahim and Setyowati, 1999). In tropical America, it is often commercialized as a cut-flower and hedge plant (Chacon, 2009). The date of introduction of E. elatior in America is uncertain. It was probably introduced during the last century from Malaysia and Indonesia (Java, Sumatra; Ibrahim and Setyowati, 1999). E. elatior is reported in herbarium collections made in 1970 in Panama, and in the 1980s in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Puerto Rico (Missouri Botanical Garden, 2014).

Soil reaction

• acid
• neutral

Soil texture

• medium

E. elatior spreads by seeds and vegetatively by rhizomes. In cultivation, it is propagated primarily by rhizome fragments (Ibrahim and Setyowati, 1999). It produces fleshy fruits facilitating its dispersal by animals including birds, bats, ants and rodents (PROTA, 2014).

E. elatior is listed as invasive in China, Costa Rica, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico (Wagner et al., 1999; Weber et al., 2008; Acevedo-Rodríguez and Strong, 2012; Chacon and Saborio, 2012; Randall, 2012). This species has the potential to grow forming dense thickets and to outcompete native vegetation. It is also able to invade shaded areas beneath the canopy of primary and secondary forests including areas in relatively unaltered native forests (Ibrahim and Setyowati, 1999; Hammel et al., 2003; Chacon, 2009).

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Tolerant of shade
• Benefits from human association (i.e. it is a human commensal)
• Long lived
• Fast growing
• Reproduces asexually

• Ecosystem change/ habitat alteration
• Monoculture formation
• Reduced native biodiversity
• Threat to/ loss of native species

• Competition - monopolizing resources
• Rapid growth
• Rooting

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately

In Southeast Asia, flowers, fruits, and young and tight buds are consumed by humans as spice in curries, fish soups, stir-fried vegetables and salads. The fruit is very sour but edible, and can be used in cooking. Less commonly, the hearts of young vegetative shoots are used for flavouring dishes or eaten raw with rice. Ripe fruits can be eaten raw or processed into sweets (Ravindran, 2017). In Malaysia E. elatior is used for flavouring 'laksa' (a special noodle dish) and many other local dishes. 

E. elatior is commonly planted as an ornamental and hedge plant. It is also cultivated on a commercial scale as a cut-flower in Hawaii and Australia (Wagner et al., 1999; Ibrahim and Setyowati, 1999). Its value in the temperate regions of the world is only as an ornamental for planting, mostly as a backdrop for lawns and smaller flowering ornamentals. The flower heads shoot up straight from the ground and the fiery bright pink floral heads look like flaming torches, hence the name torch ginger (Kinsey, 2015).

In southeastern Asia, it is used in traditional medicine. Decoctions of its fruit and the leaves are used to treat earache and applied to cleanse wounds, respectively. Traditionally it is believed that a daily intake of the raw inflorescence can reduce diabetes and hypertension (Wijekoon et al., 2011). The stem is made into matting in Sumatra. The stems also have potential as raw material for the manufacture of paper (Ravindran, 2017). The rhizome is reported to yield a yellow dye (Ibrahim and Setyowati, 1999).

The essential oils of E. elatior were analysed by Jaafar et al. (2007) and by Zoghbi and Andrade (2005). Antioxidative constituents were determined by Mohamed et al. (2005) and Chan et al. (2007), while antimicrobial activity is reported by Mackeen et al. (1997) and Chan et al. (2007).