White turmeric - Curcuma zedoaria

Common Name :	White turmeric, Wild turmeric.
Botanical Name :	Curcuma zedoaria
Family :	Zingiberaceae
Bengali Name :	Shoti.
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

Today I am going to write about the White turmeric. This turmeric is from the same plant family Zingiberaceae of Yellow turmeric. Botanical name of the plant is Curcuma zedoaria. This plant is also known as Wild turmeric. This plant is native to India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and other proximity countries. In Bangladesh this is known as Shoti. This plant was introduced to the Europe by the Arabian traders during sixth century.





White turmeric (Curcuma zedoaria) is a perennial plant that can easily grows from the root. Plants erect from the root with having large broad leafs. Leafs are having fragrance. This is a fast growing plant. Flower blooms directly from the root. The flower is having pink (magenta, purple) petals and directly connected to the rhizome of the plant. Sometimes it can happen that the flower is bloomed around but the no leafs around. This mainly happens during winter season.





White turmeric (Curcuma zedoaria) uses to bloom during the later part of the Winter and the initial part of Spring. During the winter the plant dies, but the rhizomes used to be dormant at the whole season. But at the end of the winter it uses to bloom. This flower used to bloom at the early morning (sometimes at evening) stay fresh for the whole day.


The rhizome of the plant is white (or pale white) in color. That's why this is known as White turmeric. This White turmeric was widely used as a spice in food. But later it was replaced by the Yellow turmeric as that became very available.


Photos of White turmeric (Curcuma zedoaria) flower were taken from the following location of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh it's flower is known as Shoti ful (শটি ফুল).
1. April 2010: Sitakunda, Chittagong.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/