BOTANICAL STUDY OF THE FAMILY ZINGIBERACEAE IN INDOCHINA (CAMBODIA, LAOS AND VIETNAM) 2009 Activity: Collect specimens in Tay Nguyen, Viet Nam Reported by Trần Hữu Đăng
Acknowledgments Reporter would like to thank to: Prof Le Cond Kiet, Dr Tran Triet and Dr Jerome Millet for their encouragement. Prof. Nguyen Thien Tich for his contribution in the field trip in high central and Khanh Hoa province to collect Orchidantha. Ms Truong Anh Tho for her help in the field. University of Science, SING Herbarium for providing facility for research carried out. Finally, thanks to SEP project 350 for funding the field trip. Objective Collect specimens in Dak Lac, Gia Lai Province. Result 35 collections were made: 1 Alpinia 1 Amomum 3 Boesenbergia 4 Curcuma 6 Globba 1 Kaempferia sp 1 Stahlianthus 16 Zingiber 18 specimen are proper collection (include: specimens, liquid collection, pictures, living collection and DNA material). The rest are living collection as plant found at sterile status. Specimens are being studied in Singapore Botanic Garden and University of Science by Trần Hữu Đăng and Jana Leong-Škorničková. One single trip was made by Tran Huu Dang, collecting a new species of Orchidantha in Khanh Hoa province.
Zingiber collinsii Mood & Theilade Đắk Nông Prov., Draysap waterfall Growing in wet soil by stream. Herb to 1 m high. Distance between pseudostems c. 5 cm. Leaves c. 19 per pseudostem, dark green above, lowerside maroon with white hairs; ligule pale maroon at base, white at apex, translucent. Bracts orange. Bracteoles pale cream, translucent. Calyx transparent. Corolla lobes cream. Labellum 3-lobed, mid-lobe purple with cream dots, lateral staminodes cream. Anther crest purple. Coll. No.: 159 Date: 27 July 2009
Boesenbergia cf. gelatinosa Đắk Nông Prov., Draysap waterfall Growing in wet soil by stream. Herb to 30 cm high. Pseudostems branching, fleshy. Leaves green above, whitish green, base attenuate. Corolla lobes light green. Lateral staminodes pale cream. Labellum light green with red dots in the middle. Calyx white, transparent. Coll. No.: 160 Date: 27 July 2009
Boesenbergia cf. petiolata Đắk Nông Prov., Draysap waterfall Growing in wet soil by stream. Herb to 50 cm high. Leaf base cordate. Coll. No.: 161 Date: 27 July 2009
Zingiber cf. pellitum Đắk Lăk Prov., Bản Đôn village Under dry dipterocarp and bamboo forest, rich soil. Herb to 1-1.8 m high. Distance from base to the first leaf c. 55 cm. Leaves c. 10-14 per pseudostem. Above green, lowerside whitish green with white hairs, basal sheaths 6, 4-42 cm long, dark red. Ligule pale greenish violet. Inflorescence terminal, bract green and purple or basal cream and apex green. Calyx translucent white. Corolla lobes, labellum, lateral staminodes and anther crest plain yellow. Coll. No.: 164 Date: 28 July 2009
Boesenbergia sp. Đắk Lăk Prov., Bản Đôn village Under dry dipterocarp and bamboo forest, rich soil. Herb to 55 cm high. Leaves 5 per pseudostem. Green above, lowerside pale green. Inforescence 1, terminal. Sheaths c. 15 cm high, c. 2.4 cm wide. Coll. No.: 165 Date: 28 July 2009
Globba sp. Đắk Lăk Prov., Ea H'Leo village Bamboo forest. Clump-forming herb 30-60 cm high. Leaves 6-8 per pseudostem, green above with white hairs, lowerside green or purple with white hairs. Ligule pale green with white hairs. Inflorescence terminal. Bract white or white with whitish purple in the midle. Calyx white to pale green. Bracteole white. The rest of flower orange. Coll. No.: 170 Date: 29 July 2009
Amomum sp. Đắk Lăk Prov., Ea H'Leo village Open space in disturbed forest. Clump-forming herb to 3 m high. Leaves 21 per pseudostem. Inflorescence radical arising at base of inflorescence. Fruit green, glabrous. Coll. No.: 171 Date: 29 July 2009
Kaempferia sp. Đắk Lăk Prov., Ea H'Leo village Bamboo forest. Leaves dark green with white stripes above, lower side whitish green. Flower white, calyx white, pale green towards the apex. Coll. No.: 172 Date: 29 July 2009
Curcuma thorelii Gagnep. Đắk Lăk Prov., Ea H'Leo village Dipterocarp forest. Coll. No.: 178 Date: 30 July 2009
Zingiber thorelii Gagnep. Gia Lai Prov., Thanh Bình mountain. Disturbed forest. Herb to 1.2 m high. Distance between pseudostems c. 5 cm. Leaves 6-10 per pseudostem. Dark green above, with white hairs. Lower side pule green with white hairs. Distance from base to the first leaf c. 33 cm. Ligule translucent red. Inflorescence 1-3 per pseudostem. Bract cream at base, red towards apex. Bracteole red at base, cream at apex. Calyx white, translucent. Corolla lobes cream with red stripes. Lateral staminode cream with red dots at base, red stripes at apex. Ather & anther crest yellowish orange. Coll. No.: 180 Date: 30 July 2009
Zingiber cf. mekongense Gia Lai Prov., Kon Ka Kinh National park Pinus plantation. Herb to 2.5 m high. Leaves 17-21 per pseudostem. Coll. No.: 182 Date: 31 July 2009
Zingiber sp. Gia Lai Prov. Sandy soil near stream indense forest. Herb to 0.9 m high. Leaves c. 11 per pseudostem. Green above, pale green or red tinger below. Petiole red 1/2 base, green 1/2 upper or plain green. Bracts red. Coll. No.: 183 Date: 31 July 2009
Zingiber sp. Gia Lai Prov., Kon Ka Kinh National park Under bamboo forest. Herb to 1.6 m tall. Leaves 26, narrow. Bracts yellow, peduncular bract green. Inflorescence radical, arising at base of pseudostem. Coll. No.: 185 Date: 31 July 2009
Zingiber junceum Gagnep. Đắk Lăk Prov., Ea H'Leo village Sandy soil in dipterocarp, short baboo and Phoenix humilis forest. Herb 30-80 cm high. Leaves 8-17 per pseudostem. Sheaths green throughout or red at base. Flowers yellow throughout. Collectors: Trần Hữu Đăng, Trương Anh Thơ,. Coll. No.: 188 Date: 3 August 2009
Family: LOWIACEAE Orchidantha stercorea H.D.Tran & Škorničk. sp. nov. Khánh Hòa Prov. Bamboo forest. Collectors: Trần Hữu Đăng. Coll. No.: 192 Date: 20 September
Discussion Conclusion All gingers were collected in the end of rainy season, genera found most flowering are Zingiber, Boesenbergia. While Alpinia, Amomum, Curcuma, Globba, Kaempferia, Stahlianthus were found nearly going to dormancy period. Zingiber collinsii was re-collected in its type locality in Draysap waterfall. The type plant has white stripes on the leaves. There is another variation of Z. collinsii, the leaves are plain green. Zingiber pellitum is aslo collected in this area, but the plant is less hairy than the plant in type locality in Ba Ria. This indicates that Z. pellitum is a widespread species. We found that there are special condition makes Curcuma thorelii flowering or not. The population found near by stream does not while one found inside dipterocarp forest does. Zingiber sp. (Coll. No. 183) is suspected to be a new species. It is being confirming with 1 species in Thailand and 1 species in China, as they look alike. Zingiber sp. (Coll. No. 185) in my opinion is a new described species in Thailand as Zingiber pyroglossym P.Triboun with yellow spike. This species can be grown as an ornamental plant as its long beautiful inflorescence. Zingiber junceum is the first record for Vietnam. It was collected in Dipterocarp forest, in a restrict habitat. Orchidantha stercorea H.D. Tran & Škorničk. sp. nov. (Lowiaceae) (in press) is newly described by Tran Huu Dang and Jana Leong-Škorničková. The forest in high central Vietnam is destroyed seriously makes it hard to find gingers. This leads to the possibility of species extinction as some species growing or flowering in very restrict habitat, such as Z. junceum. This year we did not go to Kon Tum province, there are different habitat from Dak Lak and Gia Lai, more field trip need to be organized there. Specimens are studying at University of Science and SING Herbarium. Zingiber pellitum need to be studied by molecular work to determine the different between the populations in type locality in Baria and the population in Tay Nguyen. One Zingiber sp. need to be confirm whether it is new species or not.