Alpinia purpurata
(red ginger)

Preferred Common Name

• red ginger

Variety

• Alpinia purpurata var. albobracteata
• Alpinia purpurata var. anomala
• Alpinia purpurata var. grandis

Other Scientific Names

• Alpinia grandis K.Schum.
• Guillainia novo-ebudica F.Muell.
• Guillainia purpurata Vieill.
• Languas purpurata (Vieill.) Kaneh.

International Common Names

• English: ginger lily; jungle king; ostrich plume; pink cone ginger
• Spanish: ginger rojo; jenjibre cimarrón; jenjibre rojo

Local Common Names

• Cuba: alpinia
• Fiji: thevunga
• French Polynesia: opuhi uteute
• Germany: Scharlachrote Alpinie
• Samoa: teuila
• Tonga: tevula

EPPO code

• AIIPU (Alpinia purpurata)

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

The family Zingiberaceae includes approximately 52 genera and 1340 species. Members of this family are perennial herbs, mostly with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes, generally aromatic and rich in starch (Acevedo-Rodríguez and Strong, 2005). Zingiberaceae, also known as “the ginger family” is a pantropical family of plants with the centre of distribution in Southeastern Asia (with 80-90% of the taxa). The genus Alpinia is the largest and most widespread genus in the Zingiberaceae with about 230 species occurring from Sri Lanka to China, Japan, Southeastern Asia, the Pacific Islands (i.e., Fiji, Samoa, and Caroline Islands), and Australia (i.e., New South Wales; Kress et al., 2005).

Robust aromatic herb, leafy shoots 1-5 m tall (up to 7 m tall in cultivated forms). Leaves oblong, 30-80 cm long, 10-22 cm wide, glabrous, apex short acuminate, sessile, ligules unequally 2-lobed, 7-20 mm long, pubescent, sheaths pubescent at apex and along margins. Inflorescences terminal on leafy shoots, unbranched (occasionally branched in cultivated forms), basically cylindrical, 15-30 cm long, usually elongating considerably with age, primary bracts usually red (occasionally pink or white in cultivated forms), ovate or broadly obovate, 2.5-3 cm long at anthesis, elongating to 4-6 cm long in fruit, apex mucronate, persistent, rachis glabrous, or rarely pubescent, bracteoles reddish, tubular, 6-10 mm long, with a subapical spur; floral tube 2-2.7 mm long; calyx reddish, 1.7-2.7 cm long, glabrous, each lobe with a subapical spur; corolla white, exserted just beyond primary bracts; labellum white, with 2 distinct lateral lobes and a central segment that is distinctly 3-lobed or subentire, about as long as corolla lobes; stamen 6-7 mm long; ovary 3-4 mm long, glabrous. Fruits are capsules nearly globose, 2-3 cm in diameter. Seeds approximately 3 mm long, angled (Wagner et al., 1999).

A. purpurata has been actively introduced as an ornamental and cut-flower plant in tropical regions. In Hawaii, it was introduced as an ornamental as early as 1928 (Wagner et al., 1999). For the West Indies, the year of introduction of this species is uncertain. The first report for the West Indies was made in 1952 for the island of Cuba (Women’s Club of Havana Garden Section, 1952). Later, by 1974, R.A. Howard reported this species for the Lesser Antilles (Howard, 1974). In Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands it is commonly planted in gardens and yards throughout the islands (Acevedo-Rodríguez and Strong, 2005). 

Soil drainage

• free
• seasonally waterlogged

Soil reaction

• neutral

Soil texture

• light
• medium

Special soil tolerances

• shallow

A. purpurata spreads by seeds and by rhizome division (Wagner et al., 1999; Acevedo-Rodríguez and Strong, 2005).

A. purpurata is able to grow forming dense thickets and displacing native vegetation principally in moist habitats such as riverbanks, edges of wetlands and mangroves, and the understory of moist secondary forests (Space and Flynn, 2002; Space et al., 2003; Space and Imada, 2004).

• 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)
• Fast growing
• Reproduces asexually

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

• Competition - monopolizing resources
• Competition - shading
• Competition - smothering
• Rapid growth
• Rooting

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately
• Highly likely to be transported internationally illegally

A. purpurata is an important ornamental plant widely cultivated in tropical areas (Kress et al., 2005).