Galangal

Galangal is a perennial herb, 40-110 cm tall: the underground rhizome is long and creeping, cylindrical. Leaves are 2-ranked, the leaf blades linear, 20-30 cm long, 1.2-2.5 cm wide, apex caudate-acuminate, base gradually narrowed, both surfaces and leaf margins glabrous, sessile; the ligule is membranous, lanceolate, 2-3 cm long, sometimes up to 5 cm, not 2-cleft. It flowers from April to September; the raceme is terminal, erect, 6-10 cm long, the rachis tomentose, the bracteoles very small, not more than 1 mm long; the pedicels are 1-2 mm long; the calyx tube is 3-toothed at the apex; the corolla tube is slightly shorter than the calyx tube, the lobes 3, oblong, about 1.5 cm long, the posterior one hooded, the lip oblong-ovate, about 2 cm long, white with red stripes, the stamen 1, the filament about 1 cm long, the anther about 6 mm long; the ovary densely tomentose. The capsule is globose, about 1 cm in diameter, orange-red when ripe. It grows on hillside grasslands or in open forests and thickets. It is distributed in our province as well as in Hainan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Taiwan, China and other provinces and regions. Wild or cultivated.