凹唇姜 ao chun jiang

Curcuma rotunda Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 2. 1753; Boesenbergia pandurata (Roxburgh) Schlechter; Kaempferia pandurata Roxburgh.

Plants to 50 cm. Rhizomes bright yellow, ovoid-globose, strongly aromatic; roots robust. Leaves 3 or 4; leaf sheath red; ligule 2-cleft, ca. 5 mm; petiole 7--16 cm, channeled; leaf blade green on both surfaces, ovate-oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, 25--50 × 7--12 cm, glabrous except for sparsely hairy midvein abaxially, base rounded to cuneate, apex apiculate. Inflorescences terminal on pseudostems, appearing from within apical leaf sheaths, subsessile, 3--7 cm; bracts lanceolate, 4--5 cm. Flowers aromatic. Calyx 1.5--2 cm, apex 2-cleft. Corolla pink; corolla tube 4.5--5.5 cm; lobes oblong, 1.5--2 cm. Lateral staminodes light pink, obovate, ca. 1.5 cm. Labellum white or pink with purple stripe, fiddle-shaped, 2.5--3.5 cm, concave, margin slightly crisped, apex entire. Filament short; connective appendage reflexed, 2-cleft, 1--3 mm. Fl. Jul--Aug. 2 n = 36*.

Dense forests; ca. 1000 m. S Yunnan (Xishuangbanna Dai Zu Zizhizhou) [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka; cultivated throughout Indo-China].

Medicinal.