Have just purchased a ginger plant with i.d. tag: 'RED GINGER - Zingiber alpinia purpurata' at a Fraser Valley nursery. The problem here is that all available references (books, internet), indicate that the leaves should be entirely green. The one I have is green top - purple bottom. Have seen the same plant offered at various nurseries, and all suffer from this 'misnomer'???? The only two gingers I can find that closely match, are the: 'Zingiber vinosum', and the, 'Alpina coerulea', but with only photos, and truncated descriptions, how can I find the special difference to i.d. them accurately? Thanks in advance for any hints/directions. I apologize if I'm in the wrong forum, but it's the closest I could find for my problem. Wayne - Chilliwack, B.C.
I had to do a bit of research for this one. The plant is mislabelled, to begin with. Zingiber is one genus of plants and Alpinia is another genus. We would need to first determine what genus this plant actually represents. I wasn't able to find a non-technical key that explains the difference between the genera online, only this key to the Zingiberaceae of China, which would likely be helpful if your plants had flowers and we had a picture of them. There may be a method for determining whether your plant is a Zingiber or not that was mentioned in a related recent discussion on GardenWeb about these mislabelled plants (posted by someone else in the Lower Mainland): Alpinia purpurata (commercial site). As you'll note, the person asking the question had the same difficulty with the plant.
Hi Daniel. Thanks for your reply. I think I have the problem solved. Another gardening forum suggested that it was either an 'Alpinia coerulea' or a 'Zingiber vinosum' but I'm pretty sure it's neither. It's identical to a picture I found at http://www.alohatropicals.com. There it's identified as a 'Stromanthe sanguinea (marantacea)'. Thanks again!
On the Zingiberaceae question - there is one fairly simple way to tell the difference between Zingiber and Alpinia, although there is considerable taxonomic confusion between the two genera. Cut one of the canes and smell it or taste it. The Zingiber will be spicy, and the Alpinia sweet. Alternately, you could take a photo and post it here. I can most likely tell you what it is.