Alpinia japonica (Thunb.) Miq.

Medicinal.

Pseudostems 35--70 cm. Ligule 2-cleft, ca. 2 mm, pubescent; petiole to 2 cm; leaf blade lanceolate, oblanceolate, or narrowly long elliptic, 25--40 × 4--7 cm, pubescent especially abaxially, base attenuate, apex acuminate, mucronate. Racemes 15--30 cm; rachis densely tomentose; involucral bracts lanceolate, ca. 9 cm, deciduous at anthesis; bracteoles very small, early deciduous. Flowers usually paired on rachis, often also with degenerate flowers; pedicel ca. 2 mm. Calyx clavate, 1--1.2 cm, pubescent, apex 3-toothed. Corolla tube ca. 1 cm, sparsely puberulent; lobes oblong, ca. 1 cm, abaxially tomentose, central one hoodlike. Lateral staminodes linear, ca. 5 mm. Labellum white marked with red stripes, ovate, ca. 6 mm wide, margin irregularly notched, apex 2-cleft. Stamen 1.2--1.4 cm. Ovary densely tomentose. Capsule salmon red, globose or ellipsoid, 1--1.5 cm in diam., pubescent, apex with persistent calyx. Seeds ca. 5 × 3 mm, many angled, with camphorlike odor. Fl. Apr--Aug, fr. Jul--Dec. 2 n = 48*.

Forests. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan].

Globba japonica Thunberg in Murray, Syst. Veg., ed. 14, 73. 1784; Alpinia agiokuensis Hayata; Languas agiokuensis (Hayata) Sasaki; L. japonica (Thunberg) Sasaki.