Alpinia japonica

Alpinia japonica (Thunb.) Miq. (Zingiberaceae), known in Japan as 'hanamyōga' and in China as shan jiang, is a rhizomatous perennial herb 40–80 cm tall native to the warm-temperate forests of Japan (Honshu south of Kanto, Shikoku, Kyushu), the Ryukyus, Taiwan and southern China. It produces creeping aromatic rhizomes from which arise pseudostems of overlapping leaf sheaths. The leaves are alternate, distichous, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 20–40 cm long and 4–8 cm wide, with a sparsely pubescent underside. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme 10–20 cm long bearing showy white-and-pink flowers; the labellum is broad, white with red-purple veins, and 2–3 cm long. The fruit is a globose-ovoid red capsule 12–18 mm long containing many seeds enclosed in a thin aril. It grows in evergreen forest understorey on humid slopes at low to mid elevations. The aromatic rhizomes and seeds are used as a domestic remedy in Japanese and southern Chinese folk medicine for digestive complaints.