The Zingiberales are flowering plants forming one of four orders in the commelinids clade of monocots, together with its sister order, Commelinales. The order includes 68 genera and 2,600 species. Zingiberales are a unique though morphologically diverse order that has been widely recognised as such over a long period of time. They are usually large herbaceous plants with rhizomatous root systems and lacking an aerial stem except when flowering. Flowers are usually large and showy, and the stamens are often modified (staminodes) to also form colourful petal-like structures that attract pollinators.
Zingiberaceae or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Many of the family's species are important ornamental, spice, or medicinal plants. Ornamental genera include the shell gingers (Alpinia), Siam or summer tulip, Globba, ginger lily (Hedychium), Kaempferia, torch-ginger Etlingera elatior, Renealmia, and ginger (Zingiber). Spices include ginger (Zingiber), galangal or Thai ginger, melegueta pepper, myoga, korarima, turmeric (Curcuma), and cardamom.
Musaceae is a family of flowering plants composed of three genera with about 91 known species, placed in the order Zingiberales. The family is native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. The plants have a large herbaceous growth habit with leaves with overlapping basal sheaths that form a pseudostem making some members appear to be woody trees. In most treatments, the family has three genera, Musa, Musella and Ensete. Cultivated bananas are commercially important members of the family, and many others are grown as ornamental plants.
The Cronquist system is a taxonomic classification system of flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in a series of monographs and texts, including The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants and An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants (1981).
Costaceae, known as the Costus family or spiral gingers, is a family of pantropical monocots. It belongs to the order Zingiberales, which contains horticulturally and economically important plants such as the banana (Musaceae), bird-of-paradise (Strelitziaceae), and edible ginger (Zingiberaceae). The seven genera in Costaceae together contain about 143 known species. They are native to tropical climates of Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America. Several species are frequently found in cultivation.
The little spiderhunter is a species of long-billed nectar-feeding bird in the family Nectariniidae found in the moist forests of South and Southeast Asia. Unlike typical sunbirds, males and females are very similar in plumage. They are usually seen in ones or twos and frequently make a tzeck call. They are most often found near flowering plants where they obtain nectar.
Kattungal Subramaniam Manilal is an Emeritus of the University of Calicut, a botany scholar and taxonomist, who devoted over 35 years of his life to research, translation and annotation work of the Latin botanical treatise Hortus Malabaricus. This epic effort brought to light the main contents of the book, a wealth of botanical information on Malabar that had largely remained inaccessible to English-speaking scholars, because the entire text was in the Latin language.
The Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (IAAT) was established in 1990. The IAAT is headquartered at the Department of Botany, Calicut University, Kozhikode, India. The IAAT is affiliated to the International Association for Plant Taxonomy. It promotes Angiosperm taxonomy in India and acts as a gathering organisation for Angiosperm taxonomists.
Chrispus Livingstone, often referred as Livi, is an Indian research scientist, botanist, educator and multifaceted person. He was instrumental in upgrading the department of Botany to one of the top three in India. During his stint the department witnessed significant innovative changes in the curriculum with the introduction of new papers and special projects (optionals) at various levels besides high quality research projects carried out by the senior professors and their research scholars leading to several accomplishments. He was also instrumental in setting up India's first artificial horticulture farm. Among his varied interests is the taxonomy of tropical plants, especially flora of Chennai, then Madras. He is perhaps best known for his book The flowering plants of Madras City and its immediate neighbourhood.
Dr Maarten Joost Maria Christenhusz is a Dutch botanist, natural historian and photographer.
Dalip Kumar Upreti is an Indian lichenologist. He served as Director and Chief Scientist at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow during 1988 to 2017. Also he served as Head of Lichenology and herbarium division. Presently he is serving as CSIR-Emeritus Scientist in the same division.
Themath Soman Nayar is an Indian Conservation Biologist specialized in plant-animal interaction, angiosperm taxonomy and palynology. He was trained in these fields from Botanical Survey of India, Sardar Patel University and Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany. From 1991 to 2012 he was the Head of the Division of Conservation Biology, Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram.
Musa arunachalensis is a species in the genus Musa. It was first described in 2013 by botanists from the University of Calicut in Kerala.
The ginger-families or ginger group or Core Zingiberales is a terminal clade in the order Zingiberales (Monocotyledoneae) that comprises Zingiberaceae, Costaceae, Marantaceae and Cannaceae. Their shared synapomorphy of a single fertile anther and four or five highly modified staminodia differentiate them from the basal paraphyletic assemblage of the "banana-families".
Larsenianthus is a genus of monocotyledonous plants in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae). The genus was established in 2010. The four or so species are native to the area of the eastern Himalayas.
Rosemary Margaret Smith (1933–2004) was a Scottish botanist and illustrator who specialized in the taxonomy of the Zingiberaceae, or ginger family. Many of the species she classified and identified as being placed into improper genera were found in Asian countries, especially in the isolated island of Borneo.
Boesenbergia siphonantha is a species of flowering plant in the ginger family Zingiberaceae and tribe Zingibereae. Records of occurrence are from the Andaman islands, Thailand and Vietnam.
Tikam Singh Rana, is an Indian plant biologist, specializing in Plant Taxonomy, Conservation Biology, and Molecular Systematics. He is presently working as Chief Scientist, Head and Area Coordinator of the Plant Diversity, Systematics and Herbarium (PDSH) Division at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI), Lucknow. Rana’s contributions to understanding the taxonomy and phylogeny of taxonomically complex and economically important taxa like Murraya sp., Chenopodium sp., Ocimum sp., Jatropha curcas, Taxus sp., Ephedra sp., Acorus calamus, Ficus sp., Sapindus sp., Bergenia sp., Betula sp., Uraria sp., Gymnema sp., etc. employing both phenotypic and molecular markers. Rana has immensely contributed towards the capacity building in plant taxonomy and bi-systematics by coordinating hands-on training courses from 2012 to 2018 for young faculty and students pursuing plant taxonomy in Indian Universities and Institutions.
