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Hellenia speciosa, or crêpe ginger, is a herbaceous rhizomatous perennial from tropical Asia and Queensland, grown for its white trumpet-like flowers and spiral leaves. It needs warm, humid, moist conditions and is often treated as an ornamental or invasive weed in some regions.
Hellenia speciosa, or crêpe ginger, is a species of flowering plant in the family Costaceae. It is a herbaceous perennial rhizomatous geophyte which is also known by Cheilocostus speciosus and other botanical names.
It is native to southeast Asia and surrounding regions, from India to southern China, Taiwan, Indochina, Malesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Queensland, Australia. It is especially common on the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is also reportedly naturalised in Puerto Rico, Mauritius, Réunion, Fiji, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Belize, Melanesia, Micronesia, and the West Indies. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental.
The species' habitat is low-lying areas in tropical forests and roadside ditches. Flowering starts after onset of the rainy season.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hellenia speciosa 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.
