Tropical Plant Database - Plant Details

Red Ginger leaves are oblong, 30-70 (-80) cm long, 10-22 cm wide, glabrous with apex short-acuminate. Inflorescences are terminal on leafy shoots, unbranched (occasionally branched in cultivated forms), basically cylindrical, 15-30 cm long, usually elongating considerably with age. The primary bracts usually is 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. The floral tube is 2-2.7 mm long, calyxis reddish, 1.7-2 (-2.7) cm long, glabrous, each lobe with a subapical spur. Corolla is white, exserted just beyond primary bracts. Labellum is white, with 2 distinct lateral lobes and a central segment that is distinctly 3-lobed or subentire, about as long as corolla lobes. Stamen are 6-7 mm long. Ovary is 3-4 mm long, glabrous. Fruits are capsules nearly globose, 2-3 cm in diameter. Seeds are 3 mm long, angled.
(Wagner, Warren L., Darrel R. Herbst, and S. H. Sohmer. 1990. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawai'i.)

This very popular Ginger composed of layers of cerise bracts is used in the cut flower industry around the world. It will bloom at 1 m but can grow up to 3 m or more. The beautiful red flower bract can last up to 3 weeks on the plant and will produce plantlets as the flower begins to fade.
(Kepler, A. K. 1995. Maui's Floral Splendor.)

Alpinia purpurata is native to New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, Bismarck Archipelago and Bougainville. Red Ginger is widely cultivated and naturalized in the tropics.

(Wagner, Warren L., Darrel R. Herbst, and S. H. Sohmer. 1990. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawai'i.)

The nectar of this flower is attractive to bees, butterflies and birds.
(Wagner, Warren L., Darrel R. Herbst, and S. H. Sohmer. 1990. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawai'i.)

In Hawai'i Red Ginger has been introduced as an ornamental as early as 1928 and now is naturalized.
In Fiji it is naturalized in abandoned garden areas, along trails and streams in forests, and on the edges of mangrove swamps, at elevations up to 500 m.
(Wagner, Warren L., Darrel R. Herbst, and S. H. Sohmer. 1990. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawai'i.)
(Smith, A. C. 1979. Flora Vitiensis Nova: A New Flora of Fiji. Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii. National Tropical Botanical Garden.)

We currently have 4 herbarium specimens for Alpinia purpurata in our collection. Click on any specimen below to view the herbarium sheet data.

• 009379 - collected by David H. Lorence in 1987
• 085967 - collected by David E. Brussell in 2008
• 060347 - collected by David H. Lorence in 2012
• 092192 - collected by Michael J. Balick in 2017