How to Identify the White Ginger Plant
Also known as the butterfly ginger plant or Hedychium coronarium, the white ginger plant is a herbaceous perennial that blooms in fragrant flowers during spring through summer. White ginger plants are easiest to identify when they're in bloom, but you can identify them during other times of the year by their other plant features. Also study the plant's leaves, stems, growth habit and location to identify the white ginger. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Look at the plant's size and shape to identify the white ginger. White ginger plants grow 4 to 5 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide, with an upright, open growth habit.
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Study the leaves to make the identification. White ginger plants have oblong to lanceolate leaves that are arranged alternately along the stem and not directly across from one another. White ginger plants have green leaves that don't change color in fall and grow 8 to 12 inches long. The leaves are deciduous and drop during winter.
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Identify the white ginger plant by its flowers when the plant is blooming. Blooming during late spring, summer and sometimes autumn, the flowers are white, large and pleasantly fragrant. Numerous flowers blooms from a large bud on the tip of each stem, each lasting only about one day.
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Study the stems and trunk to identify the white ginger plant. The stems and twigs should be very thick and green. White ginger plants have multiple trunks or clumping stems.
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Identify a white ginger plant by noticing where it's growing. White ginger plants grow best in partial sunlight to partial shade and in slightly wet, acidic soils. The plants are semitropical, growing in only USDA hardiness zones 8B through 11, where winter temperatures rarely dip down to 20 degrees F.
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Tips & Warnings
Although the white ginger isn't native to the United States but instead originates from Asia, it's an aggressive plant that can propagate and spread beyond the original landscape. The white ginger plant is not widely available and is grown by just a small percentage of nurseries.
