Skip to main content

Kamijara (Alpinia malaccensis)

Kamijara (Alpinia malaccensis) is a species of plant in the Zingiberaceae, a shrub with long leaves, flowers and fruit in panicles, hairy, grows in the shade and produces galangal which has medicinal properties.

A. malaccensis grows firmly upright, 2-4 m high, green and parts smell aromatic when squeezed. The leaf blade is narrow lanceolate, 40-90 cm long, 7-20) cm wide and has a sharp tip. A linear bone in the center forms a trench with many veins sideways. The stalk is 3-7 cm long.

Dlium Kamijara (Alpinia malaccensis)


The margins are thickened and even. The upper surface is dark green and shiny, the lower surface is light green and has a tight velvet hair or at least the edges and undersides of the main leaf bones. Midrib hair tightly near the leaf blade. The ligules are flat, up to 1 cm long and hairy.

Inflorescences in the form of grains (racemose) on the shoots, erect or slightly curved, up to 35 cm long, while the buds are protected by two long sheaths of flowers. The panicle stalks are erect, stocky, green, densely haired, supporting up to 60 or more single flowers, some of the lowest may be in pairs of 2 blossoms.

Flowers have secondary protective leaves up to 2-4 cm long, white, some tipped purple-red. Fruit will have a size of 0.9x1.2 cm and have tight hair. The petals are 3.2 cm long, 3 taju, white and velvet hair on the outside. Crown with tubes up to 1.2 cm, white, top taju up to 4x2.5 cm, tight hair on the outside and 2 taju on the sides slightly smaller.

Labellum egg-shaped, wide, up to 6 cm long and the widest part up to more than 3 cm, the edges are wrinkled, one end forms a protruding edge, the inside is red with yellow spots, the edges are yellow with stripes. the line is red-purple.





The fruits are capsule-shaped and tends to be round, up to 3 cm in diameter, stiff hair and short and ripe red orange. Seeds have 3-4 corners and are 5 mm long. Kamijara is commonly found in primary forests and other wild areas which are cool and humid.

All parts smell harsh and contain some kind of essential oil. Rhizome is used as a vegetable or cooking spice, treating ulcers and wounds, mixed with betel nuts and chewed to filter the voice of the singer. The rind of the fruit squeezed in water is used to clean and scent clothes and hair.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Zingiberaceae
Genus: Alpinia
Species: Alpinia malaccensis

Popular Posts

Laniger bat tick (Ixodes lanigeri), new hard tick species (Ixodidae) from mouse-eared bats (Myotis) in Vietnam

NEWS - Researchers have identified Ixodes ticks from Vietnam based on morphological and molecular characteristics of females, nymphs and larvae as a new species, laniger bat tick ( Ixodes lanigeri ), which like other members of the Ixodes ariadnae complex appears to show a preference for vesper bats as a typical host. Historically, for more than a century and a half, only one species has been called the “long-legged bat tick”: Ixodes vespertilionis Koch. However, over the past decade, it has been molecularly recognized that long-legged ixodid ticks associated with bats may represent at least six species. Host associations and geographic separation may explain the evolutionary divergence of the new species from its closest living relative Murina hilgendorfi Peters in East Asia, Japan, as no Myotis or Murina spp. have overlapping distributions between Vietnam and the Japanese mainland. On the other hand, assuming that I. lanigeri may be present in other myotine bats and knowing that s...

Tekijem (Cyperus cyperoides)

Tekijem ( Cyperus cyperoides ) is a plant species in Cyperaceae, annual grasses that grow in seasonal wetlands, open or shaded fields, swamps, ponds, rice fields, roadsides, open forests, secondary forests and shrubs at altitudes up to 1,800 m in the tropics. C. cyperoides has an upright, triangular shape, 20-75 cm tall from a very short rhizome and has no stolon. The lanceolate-shaped leaves are narrow and long, the tips are pointed, slippery, shiny, green and grow at the bottom and at the top of the stem. The terminal flower appears on the tip of the stem, cylindrical spiklet shaped and green. Each stem has two to seven flowers, each of which has a short or long stem that grows at the end of the stem together with the leaves. Tekijem grows solitary or in small groups at a distance. Propagating using vegetative and generative methods using seeds. At least three sub-species are Cyperus cyperoides cyperoides , Cyperus cyperoides flavus and Cyperus cyperoides pseudoflavus . Th...

Large pro rotifer (Proales amplus), new monogonont with large epipharynx from Korea (Rotifera, Proalidae)

NEWS - Large pro rotifer ( Proales amplus ) is the 42nd species in the genus Proales that exhibits unique morphological characteristics on the trophy, especially the unmatched epipharynx that prevents misidentification with other species. The epithet amplus is derived from the Latin word meaning large or wide, referring to the size and shape of the epipharynx. Proalidae Harring & Myers 1924 includes 4 genera and 53 species that are distributed throughout the biogeography and inhabit a variety of environments, including freshwater, saltwater and terrestrial environments. The genus Proales includes 41 species that are characterized by various morphological features. In Korea, the presence of Proalidae has been documented with 5 species: Bryceella perpusilla (Wilts, Martínez Arbizu & Ahlrichs, 2010), B. stylata (Milne, 1886), B. tenella (Bryce, 1897), Proales fallaciosa (Wulfert, 1937) and Proalinopsis caudatus (Collins, 1872). The habitus of P. amplus has some similarities w...