Costaceae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 Tapeinochilos ananassae of the family Costaceae
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Costaceae or the Costus Family is a family of flowering plants. The four genera and about 200 species are perennial herbs. It is similar to the family Zingiberaceae, also of the order Zingiberales, but differs in that it has 5 fused staminodes, rather than 2, and the Costaceae contain no aromatic oils.
The flowers are generally solitary or aggregated in inflorescences. Inflorescences are arranged in a terminal head or spike. The simple leaves are entire and spirally arranged, with those toward base of the stem usually bladeless. Leaf bases have a closed sheath with a ligule, or projection at the top of the sheath. Fruit is a berry or capsule. The rhizome is fleshy with tuberous roots.
[edit] See also
- Spiral Ginger, Costus barbatus
[edit] References
- The Families of Flowering Plants by L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz.
- Family Costaceae
- Specht, Chelsea D. & Stevenson, Dennis Wm. 2006. A new phylogeny-based generic classification of Costaceae (Zingiberales).Taxon 55(1):153-163.
