Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is used as a spice and a folk medicine.[2]

Ginger
1896 color plate from
Köhler's Medicinal Plants
Inflorescence
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Zingiberaceae
Genus: Zingiber
Species:
Z. officinale
Binomial name
Zingiber officinale

It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems. These are false stems made of rolled leaves: about one meter tall with narrow leaf blades. The inflorescences come directly from the rhizome on separate shoots.[3]

Ginger is used as a cooking spice throughout the world. The ginger plant has long been cultivated. It came from China and spread to India, Southeast Asia, West Africa, and the Caribbean.

Ginger is also a term used to describe a red-brown colour, as in ginger hair.

References

change
  1. "Zingiber officinale". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  2. "Ginger". US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. 1 September 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  3. Sutarno H, Hadad EA, Brink M (1999). "Zingiber officinale Roscoe". In De Guzman CC, Siemonsma JS (eds.). Plant resources of South-East Asia: no.13: Spices. Leiden (Netherlands): Backhuys. pp. 238–244.