Costus barbatus
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Scientific Name
Agroecology
Costus barbatus Suessenguth
None recorded
The plant grows well in full sun or partial shade in fertile, moist, well-drained, organic matterrich soils. It blooms year round in the warm humid tropics. It tolerates cold temperatures but not frost. It is found from 600 to 1,600 m altitude in its natural habitat in Costa Rica.
Family
Edible Plant Parts and Uses
Costaceae
Common/English Names
Yellow flowers are edible (Carle 1995) and have a delightful sour lemony flavour. Flowers can be eaten straight off the plant and are excellent in a salad.
Hawaiian Torch Ginger, Red Tower Ginger, Red Velvet Ginger, Spiral Ginger
Botany
Synonyms
Vernacular Names Spanish: Apagafuego, Cana De Jabali, Sangrafu
Origin/Distribution The species is a native of Costa Rica, Central America.
An erect, clumping herbaceous terrestrial with subterranean rhizome, growing to 1.5–2.5 m high. Ligule 10–30 mm, obtuse and lobed encircling the stem. Leaves spirally arranged with narrowly elliptic dark green lamina, 13–30 cm by 4.5–10 cm wide, simple, entire margin with a glabrous upper surface and slightly villose beneath (Plate 1). Inflorescence terminal ovoid to fusiform 4–10 cm by 2.5–4.5 cm across with numerous mucronate, bright red appendaged
T.K. Lim, Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants: Volume 7, Flowers, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7395-0_53, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
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Costus barbatus
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Comments The plant is readily propagated from division of the rhizomes or from stem cuttings.
Selected References
Plate 1 Flowers, inflorescences and foliage
bracts each bearing 1–2 tubular flowers in their axils (Plate 1). Flowers with short calyx tube 13–17 mm, corolla yellow, densely pubescent with tubular labellum 26 by 24 mm.
Nutritive/Medicinal Properties In ‘Suriname’s traditional medicine’, an extract of the stem is used against gonorrhoea, common cold and eye problems and as a laxative.
Other Uses It is a common cultivated Costus species and a very popular ornamental and provides beautiful cut flower.
Anonymous (2009) Costus barbatus – spiral ginger. Tropilab® Inc. http://tropilab.com/spiralginger.html Carle A (1995) Costus flowers – a new delicacy? Heliconia Soc Int Bull 7(4):1–2 DeFilipps RA, Maina SL, Crepin J (2004) Medicinal plants of guianas (Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana). Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Gonçalves C, Castro CEF, Azevedo Filho JA, DiasTagliacozzo GM (2005) Evaluation of Costus species and their use as indoor potted-plants. Acta Hortic (ISHS) 683:319–325 Maas PJM (1972) Costoideae (Zingiberaceae). Flora Neotropica Monogr 8:1–140 Maas PJM (1977) Renealmia (Zingiberoideae) and Costoideae additions (Zingiberaceae). Flora Neotropica Monogr 18:1–218 Maas PJM, Maas-Van de Kamer H (1997) Two new species of Costus (Costaceae) from Costa Rica. Britonia 49(20):274–279 Specht CD, Stevenson DW (2006) A new phylogeny-based generic classification of Costaceae (Zingiberales). Taxon 55(1):153–163
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