circumstantial evidence of the spread and use of turmeric by the Austronesian peoples into Oceania and Madagascar. The populations in Polynesia and Micronesia, in particular, never came into contact with India, but use turmeric widely for both food and dye. Thus independent domestication events are also likely. Turmeric was found in Farmana, dating to between 2600 and 2200 BCE, and in a merchant's tomb in Megiddo, Israel, dating from the second millennium BCE. It was noted as a dye plant in the Assyrians' Cuneiform medical texts from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh from 7th century BCE. In Medieval Europe, turmeric was called "Indian saffron." Etymology The name possibly derives from Middle English or Early Modern English as or . It may be of Latin origin, ("meritorious earth"). Botanical description Appearance Turmeric is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches up to tall. It has highly branched, yellow to orange, cylindrical, aromatic rhizomes. The leaves are alternate and arranged in two rows. They are divided into leaf sheath, petiole, and leaf blade. From the leaf sheaths, a false stem is formed. The petiole is long. The simple leaf blades are usually long and rarely up to . They have a width of and are oblong to elliptical, narrowing at the tip. Inflorescence, flower, and fruit At the top of the inflorescence, stem bracts are present on which no flowers occur; these are white to green and sometimes tinged reddish-purple, and the upper ends are tapered. The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and threefold. The three sepals are long, fused, and white, and have fluffy hairs; the three calyx teeth are unequal. The three bright-yellow petals are fused into a corolla tube up to long. The three corolla lobes have a length of and are triangular with soft-spiny upper ends. While the average corolla lobe is larger than the two lateral, only the median stamen of the inner circle is fertile. The dust bag is spurred at its base. All other stamens are converted to staminodes. The outer staminodes are shorter than the labellum. The labellum is yellowish, with a yellow ribbon in its center and it is obovate, with a length from . Three carpels are under a constant, trilobed ovary adherent, which is sparsely hairy. The fruit capsule opens with three compartments. In East Asia, the flowering time is usually in August. Terminally on the false stem is an inflorescence stem, long, containing