Volume 16 > Part 2 > Year 2023 > Page 630 > Zingiberaceae > Kaempferia

21. Kaempferia parviflora Wall. ex Bakerwfo-0000451985

Fl. Brit. India 6: 221. 1890; Schumann, Pflanzenr. IV, 46 (Heft 20): 78. 1904; Sirirugsa, Nordic J. Bot. 9: 259. 1989; Thai For. Bull. (Botany) 19: 6. 1992; Picheans. & Koonterm. J. Thai Trad. Alt. Med. 6(1): 82. 2008; Kress et al., Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb 45: 123. 2003.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Perennial herb to 40 cm tall; rhizome moniliform, elongate ovoid to subglobose, (0.6–)1.5 by 2 cm; flesh dark purple to brown; roots fascicled, tuberous. Bladeless sheaths 2–3, to 10 cm long, pale green to white; ligule truncate to shallowly bilobed, 1–2 mm long, membranous; blades 1–3, elliptic to ovate, 7–20 by 4–10 cm, green with purple mottling or dull red, glabrous above, sparsely pilose below, base subcordate, apex acute; petiole (1–)3–12(–20) cm, pale green. Inflorescence terminal, 3–5 by 1–2 cm; peduncle 3–10 cm long; rachis 3–5 cm long, glabrous; bracts lanceolate, to 5 cm long, apex acute, white, glabrous; bracteoles linear, to 6 cm long, apex rounded, hyaline, glabrous. Flowers few to 25, floral plane perpendicular; pistil ca 4.5 cm long; ovary oblong, ca 2 by 1 mm, pilose; style ca 4 cm long; stigma cup-shaped, with short hairs at front of stigmatic area, ostiole spiny, ca 0.9 mm diam., front truncate, back emarginate, sparsely pilose on sides; epigynous glands linear, ca 8.5 mm long, white; calyx ca 2 cm long, split ca 7 mm on one side, apex acute, white, glabrous; floral tube ca 4 by 0.2 cm, white, glabrous, dorsal corolla lobe oblong, ca 1.3 by 0.3 cm, apex acute and hooded, ca 1 mm long, white, glabrous, lateral corolla lobes narrowly oblong, ca 1.1 by 0.2 cm, apex rounded, slightly incurved, white, glabrous; lateral staminodes oblong-lanceolate, ca 1.3 by 0.2 cm, erect, imbricate, apex acute to rounded, white; labellum obovate, ca 1.3 by 0.7 cm, apex bilobed, divided to 2 mm, base sparsely pilose, purple with white margin, each lobe acute; stamen 1–2 cm long: filament 0.5 mm long; anther crest suborbicular, ca 1.5 by 2 mm, white, margin undulate. Fruit oblong, ca 1.5 by 1 cm, purple; seeds ovoid, 3.5–4 mm long, brown; aril white.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Tak; SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi.

Distribution : Bangladesh, Myanmar (Mon State – lectotype, northern Myanmar – type of Stahlianthus rubromarginatus), Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia.

Ecology : Dipterocarp forests, in sandy soil. Flowering: June–October.

Vernacular : Krachai dam (กระชายดำ ).

Notes: The petiole can be subsessile or as long as 20 cm. The leaves can be green to brown, sometimes with spectacular variegation.