2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
In the subtropical and tropical regions of North and South America, Africa and Asia, herbaceous perennial plants are widespread, which botanists have combined into a genus called "Costus". Plants are relatives of Ginger, the intricate rhizome of which is well known to Russians today, and its healing abilities are actively used by humans to maintain immunity. Costus is also not devoid of healing abilities, but is more often used as an ornamental plant
For a long time already I was going to "decipher" a herbaceous plant, often found on the streets of Thailand, surprising with its peculiar inflorescences. Like red candles, they are crowned with strong stems, on which large fleshy leaves are located in a spiral order. With their oblong-oval shape with a sharp nose, the leaves are similar to dozens of leaves of other tropical plants that can accumulate moisture in reserve. But I have never seen such inflorescences on other plants.
It turned out that this plant is a relative not only of Ginger, the inflorescence of which I have seen only in other people's photographs, but also of Banana and Strelitzia royal, also called the "Flower of the Bird of Paradise". I happened to see the inflorescences of the last two plants myself. All of them belong to the Ginger (lat. Zingiberales) - the order of monocotyledonous plants, and their inflorescences, indeed, have similar features.
The plant, the photographs of which I have presented in the article, has many names, which made it difficult for me to search, because, under the same photographs of the Internet, there were different names. But, there was one scientific article in which all these names were given as names-synonyms of the same plant, which allowed me to breathe freely.
As I understand it, the "main" name is "Costus woodsonii" (lat. Costus woodsonii). The species epithet "woodsonii" is assigned to the plant in memory of an American botanist named Robert Everard Woodson (Robert Everard Woodson, 1904-28-04 - 1963-06-11), who described many new plants while exploring the flora of Panama. Nineteen more plants and one genus of plants have such an epithet. It seems that Robert Woodson's contribution to botanical science was significant.
Synonymous names include such Latin names as: "Costus pisonis", "Costus spiralis", "Costus spicatus", "Alpinia spiralis". Although some write that it is a mistake to identify "Costus woodsonii" with "Costus spicatus" that both species are common in cultivation.
In addition, such a picturesque plant could not remain without numerous popular names, among which the following can be noted: "Scarlet Spiral Flag" ("Crimson spiral flag"), "Red Button Ginger" ("Ginger with a red bud").
Although the underground part of Costus Woodson is represented by a horizontal rhizome, from which the adventitious roots extend, the rhizome is not used by humans as is the Ginger rhizome. It is only suitable for the propagation of plants with which they decorate public parks and gardens, home gardens, all kinds of flower beds, arrange borders and dividing lines from plants, and also plant Costus Woodson in containers and flower pots.
The ability of a tropical plant to feel great in a flower pot allows exotic lovers to grow Costus in areas with cold climates.
Costus Woodson prefers soil rich in humus and moist. Planting site in partial shade, as the midday sun burns large leaves.
Woodson's Costus is a perennial plant that blooms for a long period. Broadly elliptical leaves (up to fifteen to thirty centimeters long), shiny and smooth, are arranged along a juicy round stem in a spiral, which distinguishes Costus from Ginger and gives rise to the name of the plant: "Spiral Ginger".
At the ends of the stems there are cylindrical inflorescences, six to ten centimeters long, with a conical end. Wax, bright red bracts for the time being tightly overlap each other. Flowers begin to appear at the top of the inflorescence, peeking out of the bract like a pocket. One to three tubular, reddish-orange flowers appear at a time, the life of which is short. There is a yellow-orange lip at the top of the flower.
The culmination of the growing cycle is an almost round or ovoid capsule fruit.
Botanists have noticed that Woodson's Costus is friendly with a certain species of ants, which protect the developing fruits of the plant from damage by fly larvae in exchange for nectar located between the bracts. So, not all ants are enemies of the gardener.
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