Spermatophyta: Monocotyledonae: Zingiberales

Costaceae

Description of the family

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.

Costus afer

Links to genera:     View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this family

GenusContent
Costus L.Description, Image

Other sources of information about Costaceae:

Our websites:

Flora of Caprivi: cultivated Costaceae
Flora of Malawi: Costaceae
Flora of Mozambique: Costaceae
Flora of Zambia: Costaceae
Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Costaceae

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Costaceae
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Costaceae
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Costaceae
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Costaceae
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Costaceae
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Costaceae
JSTOR Plant Science: Costaceae
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Costaceae
Wikipedia: Costaceae
Plants of the World Online: Costaceae
Tropicos: Costaceae



Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave, 2002-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Zimbabwe: Family page: Costaceae.
https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/family.php?family_id=319, retrieved 19 March 2024

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