ABSTRACT
The genus Zingiber of the family Zingiberaceae is distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia and Far East Asia and consists of about 150 species. Zingiberaceae is of considerable importance as a "spice family.” Besides ginger this family includes turmeric, cardamom, large cardamom, grain of paradise, and several others having economic and medicinal importance. Zingiberaceae was earlier divided into the subfamilies Costoideae and Zingiberoideae, which were later given independent family status as Costaceae and Zingiberaceae. Three tribes were recognized in the subfamily Zingiberoideae by workers such as Peterson (1889) and Schumann (1904); and the genus Zingiber was included in the tribe Zingibereae along with Alpinia, Amomum, and others. This tribe is characterized by the absence of lateral staminodes or staminodes that are united to the labellum, in comparison with tribe Hedychieae, in which the lateral staminodes are well developed. Later Holttum (1950) removed Zingiber from Zingibereae and renamed it as Alpinieae; his argument was that Zingiber is closer to the genera under the Hedychieae as their lateral staminodes appear as lobes at the base of the labellum, whereas in Alpinia these staminodes are well developed. Many later workers accepted the opinion of Holttum. Burtt and Smith, however, felt that the contention of Holttum is nomenclaturally incorrect and proposed that Zingiber should be in an independent tribe (Burtt and Smith, 1983).
