Ginger - plant profile

Names

Ginger (English)
Srngaveram (Sanskrit)
Adrak (Hindi, Urdu)
Sont (Hindi, dried ground ginger)

Botanical name: Zingiber officinale
Family: Zingiberaceae, the ginger family

The closely related Zingiber montanum and Zingiber zerumbet are also cultivated in India. Like ginger, they are used as a spice.

Botanical names are often derived from their ancient names. The word Zingiber is a good example. It is thought to come from the Sanskrit word singabera which was from Arabic and Greek words meaning 'shaped like a horn'. It probably got its name because the rhizomes look like deer's antlers.

The plant

Ginger plants can grow to about 1 m tall. The upright shoots sprout from the rhizome at the base of the plant.
Photograph of a ginger plant growing in Kew Gardens.
Image: Ginger plant

Rhizomes - knobbly and fleshy, covered in ring-like scars. This is the important part for food and medicine. Although the rhizomes grow underground, they are swollen stems, not roots. This is why fresh ginger is often referred to as 'stem ginger'.

Flowers - the flowering spikes sprout directly from the rhizomes and are about 30 cm long. The flowers are purple with a cream-blotched base.

Fruits - red in colour. Each has three chambers containing several small black seeds. Ginger plants that are cultivated in commercial plantations don't usually bear fruit.