''Zingiber barbatum'' (''meik-thalin'' or ''meik tha-lin'') is a medicinal, therapeutic
ginger
Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice
A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...
found in
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
. The plant, a
rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
geophyte
A storage organ is a part of a plant specifically modified for storage of energy
(generally in the form of carbohydrates) or water. Storage organs often grow underground, where they are better protected from attack by herbivores. Plants that have ...
, is concentrated primarily in the
Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
,
Bago
Bago may refer to:
Places Myanmar
* Bago, Myanmar, a city and the capital of the Bago Region
* Bago District, a district of the Bago Region
* Bago Region an administrative region
* Bago River, a river
* Bago Yoma or Pegu Range, a mountain rang ...
, and
Mandalay
Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census).
Mandalay was fo ...
regions, although specimens have been found in at least two other administrative regions.
Researchers from the
University of Tsukuba
is a public university, public research university located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Ibaraki, Japan. It is a top 10 Designated National University, and was ranked Type A by the Japanese government as part of the Top Global University Pro ...
,
Padjadjaran University
Padjadjaran University id, Universitas Padjajaran, abbreviated as UNPAD) is a public university located in Sumedang Regency and Bandung, which is the provincial capital of West Java, Indonesia. It was established on September 11, 1957.
UNPAD ha ...
, and
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University
Khyber (خیبر درہ) may refer to:
Places
* Khyber Pass, a mountain pass that links Afghanistan and Pakistan
* Khyber District, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
* Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province of Pakistan
*Khaybar, an oasis in Saudi ...
consider the plant to be an "underutilized
icmedicinal plant",
being "used in the indigenous system of medicine". Having collated 19 specimens from five of Myanmar's administrative subdivisions, the botanists denoted 29 morphological characteristics, pertaining to growth habits, leaf, pseudo-stem, and rhizome characteristics. Of the 29, 22 displayed a high degree of variation within wild ginger specimens, and 20 "contributed significantly" to morphological variation. Eleven amplified primer sets gave a total of 175 bands and exhibited 92.15% polymorphism across intraspecies specimens.
In Nathaniel Wallich's 1830 compendium ''
Plantae Asiaticae Rariores
''Plantae Asiaticae Rariores'' is a horticultural work (alternative title ''Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants'') published in 1830–1832 by the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich.
''Plantae Asiaticae Ra ...
: or, Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants'', he describes ''Z. barbatum'' in nuanced detail:
his
His or HIS may refer to:
Computing
* Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company
* Honeywell Information Systems
* Hybrid intelligent system
* Microsoft Host Integration Server
Education
* Hangzhou International School, in ...
species approaches nearest to ''Zingiber squarrosum
The genus ''Zingiber'' is native to Southeast Asia especially in Thailand, China, the Indian Subcontinent, and New Guinea. It contains the true gingers, plants grown the world over for their culinary value. The most well known are '' Z. officina ...
'' of William Roxburgh
William Roxburgh FRSE FRCPE Linnean Society of London, FLS (3/29 June 1751 – 18 February 1815) was a Scottish people, Scottish surgeon and botanist who worked extensively in India, describing species and working on economic botany. He is known ...
, which I found abundantly about Rangoon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
, but differs in having uch
Uch ( pa, ;
ur, ), frequently referred to as Uch Sharīf ( pa, ;
ur, ; ''"Noble Uch"''), is a historic city in the southern part of Pakistan's Punjab province. Uch may have been founded as Alexandria on the Indus, a town founded by Alexan ...
broader, convex and ventricose bracts
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...
, ending in a very long cylindric point. It grows on the hills near the banks of the Irrawaddy, about Prome
Pyay (, ; mnw, ပြန် , ; also known as Prome and Pyè) is principal town of Pyay Township in the Bago Region in Myanmar. Pyay is located on the bank of the Irrawaddy River, north-west of Yangon. It is an important trade center for the Ayey ...
, on both sides of that river, where I saw it with unripe fruit nSeptember. The plants which were introduced thence into the Calcutta Garden, blossom freely during the cold and rainy seasons. The spikes issue from the creeping roots, near the stems, or from the base of the latter, and are barely elevated above the surface of the earth; they are sometimes compound, that is, a spikelet is produced from one or two of the lowermost bracts. The whole plant possesses a very faint, though pleasant aromatic smell and taste.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15336259
barbatum
Endemic flora of Myanmar