Skip to main content

Greater galangal (Alpinia galanga)

Lengkuas or galangal or greater galangal (Alpinia galanga) is a plant species in the Zingiberaceae, growing to a height of 3 meters or more, underground rhizomes and small adventitious roots, young stems emerge as shoots from the base of old stems, the entire stem is covered with leaf sheaths or stems pseudo.

A. galanga has leaves with short stalks, elongated lanceolate in shape, pointed tip, blunt base, flat edge, 25-50 cm long, 7-15 cm wide, 15-30 cm leaf midrib, grooved and green in color.

Dlium Greater galangal (Alpinia galanga)


Compound inflorescence in bunches, long stalks, erect and gathered at the end of the stalk. There are more flowers at the bottom than at the top of the stalk so that they are in the shape of an elongated pyramid. Petals are bell-shaped and greenish-white.

The crown that is still a bud at the tip is white and the bottom is green. Flower lip has a length of 2.5 cm, white with a bright red oblique line on each side. The crown that is still in bud has a white color, while the base is green.



Buni fruit, round, hard, green when young and brown when old. The seeds are small, oval in shape, green when young and turn red, then black when old.

Tubers are white or red. Rhizome creeping, large, thick, fleshy, cylindrical, 2-4 cm in diameter and branching. The outer part is brown, slightly reddish or greenish yellow, the scales are white or reddish, hard and shiny. The inside is white.

The rhizome has a distinctive aroma, rough and spicy when it is old. The rhizome turns green, the fiber becomes hard and tough when dried. The taste is sharp, spicy, biting and smells good because of the essential oil content.

Galangal is a type of spice that is widely grown. Generally for a mixture of spices and traditional medicine. Utilization for cooking by beating the rhizome, then just dipping it into the cooking mixture, while for traditional medicine that is widely used is the red cultivar.

This species grows in open areas, in full sun or partial shade. Grows well in moist, loose soil. Grows poorly in flooded soils. It thrives in the lowlands to an elevation of 1200 meters. This plant grows wild in teak forests, pine forests or in shrubs.

The history of the cultivation and trading of spices originally took place on the island of Java. Galangal is still widely cultivated in Southeast Asia, especially in the Greater Sunda Islands and the Philippines. Cultivation has also spread to Southeast Asia, including Thailand.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Zingiberaceae
Subfamily: Alpinioideae
Tribe: Alpinieae
Genus: Alpinia
Species: Alpinia galanga

Popular Posts

Java milkwort (Polygala javana)

Java milkwort ( Polygala javana ) is a species of plant in the Polygalaceae family. It has erect, woody, branched stems with brown to black stems and white hairs or powdery hairs. The leaves are opposite and alternate. The leaves are oval, up to 30 mm long and up to 9 mm wide, and green. The inflorescences are arranged in panicles, arranged in rows and radially. The flowers are butterfly-shaped, yellow, green, and purple, with white hairs, up to 8 mm wide. TAXON Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Fabales Family: Polygalaceae Tribe: Polygaleae Genus: Polygala Tourn. ex L. in Sp. Pl.: 701 (1753) Species: Polygala javana DC. in Prodr. 1: 327 (1824) HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS Polygala ceylanica B.Heyne ex Wall. in Numer. List: n.° 4183 (1831) Polygala javana var. angustifolia Thwaites in Enum. Pl. Zeyl.: 22 (1864) Polygala raoi R.N.Banerjee & L.K.Banerjee in Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., B 82: 218 (1975) PUBLICATIONS Aung, Y.L., Aung, M.H....

Black jumping spider (Hyllus diardi)

Black jumping spider ( Hyllus diardi ) is an animal species in the Salticidae, black and white spiders, long hair, round head, elongated belly, relatively small, arboreal, perched on leaves in bushes and low trees in forests and agricultural lands. H. diardi has black and white color, shiny surface and white hair all over the body. The head is round, shiny black with a linear white line in the middle. Black eyes on the front of the head. The stomach has an elongated, jointed, black cylindrical shape with black plots at the top of each segment. The legs are long, segmented, shiny black or brownish in color and hairy. Black jumping spiders live arboreal, perch on leaf surfaces, low bushes, trees in forests, agricultural land, roadsides and shade. Very sensitive to human presence and will hide behind leaves to avoid sight. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Chelicerata Class: Arachnida Order: Araneae Suborder: Araneomorphae Infraorder: Entelegynae Superfamily: Salticoi...

Cat's whiskers (Orthosiphon aristatus)

Remujung atau kumis kucing atau cat's whiskers ( Orthosiphon aristatus ) is a species of plant in the Lamiaceae, an erect herb, the lower part is rooted at the joints, 2 meters high, the stem has four corners and is somewhat grooved with short hair or bald, has joints where branches grow to the left and right and is dark purple. O. aristatus has round or oval, lanceolate, round-ovate or rhombic leaves starting from the base, 1-10 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, 4-29 cm long stalks and a main vein in the middle, leaf stalk length 7-29 cm. Glandular flower petals, veins and bases are short and sparsely hairy, while the uppermost part is bald. The terminal crown is a bunch that comes out of the end of the branch with a length of 7-29 cm. Length 13-27mm, covered with short purple hairs on the top and then turning white, tube length 10-18 mm, lip length 4.5-10mm, blunt flower strands, round. Stamens are longer than flower tubes and exceed the upper lip of the flower. Dark brown fruit, 1.75-...