Shell Ginger

I took this photo at Sugar Mill Botanical Gardens near Daytona Beach a few years ago. It was Thanksgiving weekend and the plant was in full bloom. The plant was only labeled "Shell Ginger". It was a very tall plant, probably 8' plus. The volunteers that maintain the garden sell young plants and I brought one home and it has thrived. I have not seen it bloom because due to some work we were having done on the house we had to cut it back and transplant it at the wrong time last year.
Is there a more specific name? Thanks.

The common name "shell ginger" usually is given to Alpinia zerumbet, and that is indeed the most common Alpinia in cultivation in the US, but.... You said it was blooming at thanksgiving time - it usually blooms in late spring, and only in areas where it has not been frozen back. Also, the inflorescenses are pendant, and in your photo this appears to be upright. There are well over 200 species of Alpinias, but only about 10 are in cultivation in the US.

All that being said, Alpinia zerumbet is the only Alpinia common in cultivation that gets that tall, so most likely that is it. There is another Alpinia that has upright inflo and gets VERY tall, but I have only seen it at Fairfield Gardens in Miami. The late David Bar Zvi (who was monocots director there) told me it was identified by Dr. John Kress as Alpinia elegans. I went to my photos at http://www.gingersrus.com/DataSheet.php?PID=3733 and took another look, but the labellum does not have the reddish stripes like A. zerumbet, A. henryii and others.

POSSIBLY, if it really does have upright inflo, it could be A. henryii. That one is usually described as being much shorter, but the one I have growing in my garden is well over 6 feet tall this year. It has the upright inflo with reddish stripes on the labellum also.

So... it is definately an Alpinia, probably A. zerumbet, but the upright inflo and Thanksgiving-time blooms do not quite fit.

Dave Skinner
www.gingersrus.com

Thanks, this is a distant (and not very good) picture. However, you can see the flowers are definitely upright and these plants were all over the place and in flower at the time.

I found Sugar Mill gardens quite charming. They were entirely maintained by a group of volunteers so they are not fancy or fussy like so many of the larger botanical gardens. It was quite a pleasant respite from busy Daytona.