Often robust herbaceous plants, lacking aromatic oils; rhizome fleshy with tuberous roots. Leaves simple, entire, spirally arranged; leaf base with a closed sheath, a ligule present at the top of the sheath. Flowers solitary (Monocostus) or in an elongated or subcapitate spike; each flower subtended by a large bract.
Infertile stamens 5, fused, forming a large petaloid labellum to attract pollinators. Fruit a berry or capsule. Comment: Costaceae differs from the other families in Zingiberales having 5 fused staminodes iso 2 or 3. Worldwide: 8 genera and c. 143 species in tropical Asia, Africa and Central and South America. Zimbabwe: 1 genus and 4 taxa. |