7/31/2019 The Gingers of Malaysia and Borneo

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The Gingers of Malaysia and Borneo

Category : Flora of Malaysia & Borneo

The Zingiberaceae is group of plants commonly known as ginger. It is a prominent component of tropicalfloras throughout the world with t he center of distribution in SE Asia. The species richness of Bornean gingers is quite high as the greatest concentration of genera and species is in the Malesian region (Indonesia, Malaysia, the island of Borneo, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

Gingers are used as ornamental plants for gardens, for traditional medicine, and in culinary preparations as a spice. Mostly terrestrial, they are f ound growingnaturally in damp, shady areas but some species can tolerate full sun. There are also epiphytic gingers. Hedychium longicornutum is often encounteredgrowing on the trunks of palms and trees in Peninsular Malaysia. Amomum roseisquamosum is an epiphyte found in Borneo.

Most gingers species bloom more than once a year, or occasionally continuously with brief interruptions. It is the floral structure or inflorescence of these plants that makes them so distinctive in the forest. The gaudy, plastic looking floral structure isusually red, yellow, or orange, sometimes white. The flowers produce abundant but fairly dilute nectar, less than 30% sugar b y weight, and are mainly visitedand pollinated by long-billed spiderhunter birds or long-tongued bees. The fruit is bird or animal dispersed. Some of the gingers that fruit close to the groundactually utilize ants as fruit dispersers.

Myrmecochory, seed dispersal by ants, has been found in several species of Globba that occur in Borneo. Globba species are typical of the Zingiberaceae inreference to the aril, a fleshy appendage that particially encloses the seed. The cells in the aril are usually rich in lipids and also contain proteins and somestarch. The aril in Globba species functions as an elaiosome (ant fruit) that the ants can use as a handle to carry the seed and as a source of food. After thearil is eaten by the ants, the seed is discarded intact having been dispersed by the ants.

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Zingiberales currently has within it eight families of which, the Zingiberaceae or ginger family is one of the largest families and is predominantly found in tropical Asia. Of the approximately 1200 species of plants found in the Gi nger family about 1000 occur intropical Asia. About 160 species of Zingiberaceae occur in Peninsular Malaysia.

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