Mystery Plant

[GregR]

anyone identify what this plant is? Nobody in the neighborhood seems to know, and I couldn't find it in any of the garden books that I checked.

Almost looks like a cross between a banana plant and some kind of bamboo. It's located in the eastern Ventura County area of SoCal.

Thanks in advance for any help and/or ideas. :-)

[Cereoid-UR12-]

What's that? You couldn't find it in one of those shitty coffe table garden books?

All is lost!

How about a closeup of the flowers, babe?

Its difficult to identify most gingers (or any plant for that matter) without seeing the flowers.

So get your butt back out there and take those closeups.

[Zemedelec]

Yes--closeups! Closeups! At that distance, I can't tell if it's a "butterfly" ginger, a "shell" ginger, or what. Definitely gingerish. zemedelec

[animaux]

[GregR]

No flowers as of right now, but it does have some white-ish "pods" that look like they're about to open. Looks like the flowers are going to be yellow, with a reddish tint to the lower interior:

[Cereoid-UR12-]

Those ARE the flowers, you knucklehead.

The whitish "pods" are actually the flower buds. Flowers that are bird pollinated do not open widely.

Its a "Shell Ginger", Alpinia zerumbet. Its a very common plant in cultivation in the tropics and subtropics, invasive and a potential weed.

you get back to all those "authorities" in your SoCal neighborhood that didn't know what it was and straighten them out. Its should have been in one of your garden books.

paradise...others.

[Charles]

Most common around here (Ventura County) is the common white ginger, Hedychium coronarium

Is yours fragrant?

[Cereoid-UR12-]

You are not even close, Chuckwheat.

[GregR]

I never claimed to be a gardener, but I'm definitely willing to learn. Up to now my only experience has been with container citrus, palms, and the like. I inherited this stuff from the people who used to live here.

Thanks for the links and the info, I assume since it's considered an "invasive plant" in Hawaii that it's fairly easy to propagate? I wouldn't mind having one for my own when I move out of here in a year or so.

Thanks for the info, despite your semi-abrasive attitude... ;-)

[Cereoid-UR12-]

Don't be such a prissy fusspot for a pod person passing as a nobody from nowhere. Just playing, gingerbread.

Yeah, Alp>

[GregR]

Can't tell yet - nothing but pods right now, though the flowers look like they're ready to bloom in the next couple of weeks or so.

[Charles]

So how do you get them to bloom? I have some, some variegated, some not. They just get bigger and bigger.

I went to several local (100 miles) nurseries and got what gingers I could find. The Kahili ginger is the only one that has bloomed so far, the white ginger is still a bit small.