The Hanoitimes - Scientists have made public their discovery of a new black ginger species, an endemic species of
The new ginger species is named Distichochlamys benenica Q.B. Nguyen & Škorničk. It was discovered by Vietnamese and Singaporean scientists in the Ben En National Park in the central
Dr. Nguyen Quoc Binh, a member of the research group, said this is the fourth species of Distichochlamys black ginger in
Earlier, the first black ginger species was found out at the Bach Ma National Park in the central
Dr. Binh said that the standard specimen of the newly-discovered species is now preserved at the
“Black ginger is considered the endemic species of
Zingiberaceae are a family of flowering plants consisting of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes, comprising of about 52 genera and more than 1300 species, distributed throughout tropical Africa, Asia, and the
Members of the family are small to large herbaceous plants with distichous leaves with basal sheaths that overlap to form a pseudostem. The plants are either self-supporting or epiphytic. Flowers are hermaphroditic, usually strongly zygomorphic, in determinate cymose inflorescences, and subtended by conspicuous, spirally arranged bracts. The perianth is composed of two whorls, a fused tubular calyx, and a tubular corolla with one lobe larger than the other two. Flowers typically have two of their stamenoids (sterile stamens) fused to form a petaloid lip, and have only one fertile stamen. The ovary is inferior and topped by two nectaries, the stigma is funnel-shaped
