Family · Monocots
Costaceae
Spiral gingers
Spiral gingers: tropical herbs with spirally arranged leaves on cane-like stems.
- Accepted species
- 163accepted names · Kew WCVP
- Genera
- 8accepted genera · Kew WCVP
- Origin
- ≈18 MaNeogene · crown age, Jin & Qian 2022 megatree
- Centre of diversity
- Southern Americamost native species · WGSRPD
Open Costaceae in the treePan, zoom and dig into its genera in the interactive view.›
Plants you might know
- Costus
- Spiral ginger
- Cheilocostus
Genera
Costus115 spp.
Tapeinochilos16 spp.
Chamaecostus9 spp.
Parahellenia9 spp.
Hellenia8 spp.
Dimerocostus3 spp.
Paracostus2 spp.
Monocostus1 spp.
Where it grows
- Southern America85
- Asia-Tropical40
- Africa31
- Northern America11
- Asia-Temperate8
- Australasia2
Native species richness by botanical continent (WGSRPD level 1), from Kew WCVP.