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Alpinia caerulea
Also called Native ginger, Common ginger
Alpinia caerulea is a rhizomatous understorey perennial from wet rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest in eastern Australia and New Guinea. It grows best in humid, shaded, moist conditions, often beside waterways.
Alpinia caerulea, commonly known as native ginger or Australian ginger, is an understorey perennial herb in the family Zingiberaceae which grows in rainforest, gallery forest and wet sclerophyll forests in eastern Australia.
The native ginger is endemic to New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. The natural range is from the Gosford district north along the coast to the tip of Cape York Peninsula and the islands of the Torres Strait (see map of sightings in the External links section below). It grows in coastal and sub-coastal rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest, commonly beside waterways. The altitudinal range is from sea level to around 1,400 m (4,590 ft).
For the Kuku Yalanji people of far northern Queensland, this plant had many uses – the fruit and rhizomes were eaten, the leaves were used to cover their shelters and to wrap meat when cooking in earth ovens.
Greater galangal · Alpinia malaccensis · Black Fruited Galanga · Lesser galangal · Red ginger · Shellplant · Ginger Lilies
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Alpinia caerulea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
