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Cameroon Pink Ginger
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Cameroon Pink Ginger
P Introduced Photo: Aruna Rai
Common name: Cameroon Pink Ginger, Cameroon Spiral Ginger, African Princess, Cameroon Costus
Botanical name: Costus phyllocephalus    Family: Costaceae (Spiral Ginger family)
Synonyms: Costus fissiligulatus, Costus nudicaulis, Costus violaceus

Cameroon Pink Ginger is a perennial herb with a rhizome, and round, hairless stem up to 50 cm long. Flowers are borne at branch-ends, in head about 5 cm in diameter, with large bracts having a blade up to 7 cm long. Flowers are bisexual, zygomorphic, 3-merous; sepal-cup tubular, about 1.5 cm long, toothed. Flowers are 3-petaled, petals fused at base, unequal; lip about 5 cm x 5 cm, pink with white throat. Stamen 1, petal-like, about 3 cm long; ovary inferior, 3-celled. Leaves are arranged spirally, simple; sheath tubular, closed, with ligule up to 3 cm long. Leaf-stalks are up to 0.5 cm long; blade lanceshaped to oblong-obovate, 8-17 cm x 4-6.5 cm, with an tapering tip, hairless. Fruit is a capsule crowned by the persistent sepal-cup, many-seeded. Cameroon Pink Ginger is native to Africa, specifically Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Repu, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Zambia, Zaïre. It is cultivated elsewhere as a garden plant.

Identification credit: Aruna Rai Photographed in Dattaji Salvi Udyan, Thane , Maharashtra.

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