Zingiberaceae () or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Many of the family's species are important ornamental, spice, or medicinal plants. Ornamental genera include the shell gingers (Alpinia), Siam or summer tulip (Curcuma alismatifolia), Globba, ginger lily (Hedychium), Kaempferia, torch-ginger Etlingera elatior, Renealmia, and ginger (Zingiber). Spices include ginger (Zingiber), galangal or Thai ginger (Alpinia galanga and others), melegueta pepper (Aframomum melegueta), myoga (Zingiber mioga), korarima (Aframomum corrorima), turmeric (Curcuma), and cardamom (Amomum, Elettaria). Description Members of the family are small to large herbaceous plants with distichous leaves with basal sheaths that overlap to form a pseudostem. The plants are either self-supporting or epiphytic. Flowers are hermaphroditic, usually strongly zygomorphic, in determinate cymose inflorescences, and subtended by conspicuous, spirally arranged bracts. The perianth is composed of two whorls, a fused tubular calyx, and a tubular corolla with one lobe larger than the other two. Flowers typically have two of their stamenoids (sterile stamens) fused to form a petaloid lip, and have only one fertile stamen. The ovary is inferior and topped by two nectaries, the stigma is funnel-shaped. Some genera yield essential oils used in the perfume industry (Alpinia, Hedychium). Taxonomy Subdivisions Subfamily Siphonochiloideae Tribe Siphonochileae Siphonochilus Subfamily Tamijioideae Tribe Tamijieae Tamijia Subfamily Alpinioideae Siliquamomum (incertae sedis) Tribe Alpinieae Adelmeria Aframomum - grains of paradise Alpinia - galangal Amomum Aulotandra Cyphostigma Elettaria - cardamom Elettariopsis Etlingera Geocharis Geostachys Hornstedtia Lanxangia Leptosolena Plagiostachys Renealmia Vanoverberghia ×Alpingera F. Luc-Cayol (Alpinia × Etlingera) - intergeneric hybrid Tribe Riedelieae Burbidgea Pleuranthodium Riedelia Siamanthus Subfamily Zingiberoideae Caulokaempferia (incertae sedis) Tribe Zingibereae Boesenbergia Camptandra Cautleya Cornukaempferia Curcuma - turmeric Curcumorpha Distichochlamys Haniffia Haplochorema Hedychium Hitchenia Kaempferia Kedhalia Laosanthus Myxochlamys Nanochilus Newmania Parakaempferia Pommereschea Pyrgophyllum Rhynchanthus Roscoea Scaphochlamys Smithatris Stadiochilus Stahlianthus Zingiber - ginger Tribe Globbeae Gagnepainia Globba Hemiorchis Distribution The Zingiberaceae have a pantropical distribution in the tropics of Africa, Asia, and the Americas, with their greatest diversity in South Asia. References Bibliography External links List of Indian medicinal plants from Biodiversity of India Abstracts from the Symposia on the Family Zingiberaceae A New Classification of the Zingiberaceae from the Third Symposium on Zingiberaceae Zomlefer, W.B. Flowering Plant Families. The University of North Carolina Press. 1994. Commelinid families Rhizomatous plants