Updated September 25, 2022.  As explained below, the Canna (left)  shown above is an example of a plant belonging to the ginger order.  The Globba (shown to the right) is a ginger family plant.   Banana plants are from the ginger-order and not true gingers.

Ok, now the biology lesson.  The hierarchy goes order, family, genus and possibly cultivar.  Most of the time we are buying plants,  we just go by genus, species and cultivar and don’t need to know the entire classification.     Bananas, bird-of-paradise, costas, cannas  and heliconias are all examples of ginger-related plants, not true gingers.   Ok, there will be no test at the end, and you can google all of this stuff.  And generally with a common name, you can find the scientific one.

But the hierarchy really begins with the ginger order (Zingiberales) and includes all  “ginger related” plants.  Next down is the ginger family,  Zingiberaceae or true gingers.  Within the ginger family, there is a genus Zingiber or true-true gingers, which is a subset of the family, with about 200 species.

I don’t grow any ginger for their roots to use as spices.   The most common source of ginger is the Zingiber officinale.  The spices turmeric, cardamom and galangal come from ginger family plants.

I like Hedychiums as you can see them in my posts because they are very beautiful and fragrant. The label “ginger lilies” is not good, because it is a common name given to many gingers.  Also, referring to them as lilies is not a good way of making friends with horticulturists.   The butterfly orchid or white orchid is generally referring to H. coronarium or similar Hedychiums like flavenscens.   These are very  common Hedychiums sold in South Florida.

The Burbidgea scheizocheila, pictured below,  is  one of 5 species of Burbidgea and is a member of the ginger family.   I have been experimenting with the plant and finally discovered a cooler place on my patio (I’m in Miami, Zone 11) where I hope my plants will be happy.

The ginger family, Zingiberaceae,  has 50 genera and around 1600 species.   Growers are always coming up with new varieties, so nobody has a complete collection.  Here are the ones I have:

• Alpinia
• Cornukaempferia
• Curcuma
• Etingera
• Globba
• Hedychium
• Kaempferia
• Monocostus
• Siphonochilus
• Zingiber

The Calathea genus is a member of the Marantaceae family.   My Calathea warcewiczii is growing nicely on my front patio, getting ready to bloom.    Also in the Maranta family, I have the “never never” plant genus, or Ctenanthe plant.

Finally, there is an uninvited guest, called Blue Ginger.  Not to be confused with a restaurant or clothing.  It is Dichorisandra thryiflora, and makes pretty blue flowers.  It is not related to gingers, but it is a monocot, so we can say it is a distant cousin, similar to a zillion other monocots.  Mine hasn’t flowered in a while.

I’ll be adding more pictures soon, with the common names, to make it easy.

Happy Gardening,

Dave