Species
+

Alpinia purpurata (Vieill.) K.Schum.

Opuhi, Red Ginger, Sari sakai viro, Sari longoza, Sari tsingizo masera

Climate known 50 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Alpinia purpurata, commonly referred to as red ginger, ostrich plume and pink cone ginger, is a ginger native to Maluku and the southwest Pacific islands. In typical ginger fashion, A. purpurata is a rhizomatous plant, spreading underground in a horizontal growth habit, sending feeder roots downwards into the substrate and sprouting leafy vertical stems from nodes located along the rhizome. As its common name implies, red ginger blooms with showy inflorescences on long, bright magenta- to red-hued bracts; while they appear to be a blossom, bracts are in fact modified leaves that contain the plant's actual flowers. Bracts are a common feature of many botanical genera, having evolved to protect and resemble the flowers and appeal to pollinators. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Alpinia purpurata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Alpinia

Alpinia is a genus of flowering plants in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. Species are native to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, where they occur in tropical and subtropical climates. Several species are cultivated as ornamental plants.

Text from Wikipedia, “Alpinia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Zingiberaceae
Described by
(Vieill.) K.Schum.
Native to
Maluku, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea +3
Wild records
49 in range· 36 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2296mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 294 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Alpinia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2296 mm a year, wettest February at 294 mm, driest July at 109 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Alpinia grandis K.Schum.; Alpinia purpurata subsp. albobracteata K.Schum.; Alpinia purpurata subsp. anomala Gagnep.; Alpinia purpurata subsp. grandis (K.Schum.) K.Schum.; Alpinia purpurata var. albobracteata K.Schum. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Alpinia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1673 mm of 2296 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 3.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2296 mm a year, wettest February at 294 mm, driest July at 109 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2296 mm a year at the habitat, 1673 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 294 mm, driest July at 109 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1271 mm to 3724 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 20.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.5 °C, the absolute minimum 18.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.1 °C in August (across the envelope cells 17.6 °C to 25.3 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 25 °C in Aug to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 22 °C in Aug to 24 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 2296 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 38 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 18.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°27.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)18.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–41RH 63–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 38 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 26–2828 / 27–2827 / 26–2827 / 25–2826 / 24–2826 / 22–2725 / 21–2725 / 21–2725 / 22–2725 / 23–2826 / 25–2827 / 26–28
Night °C24 / 23–2624 / 23–2624 / 23–2624 / 22–2624 / 20–2623 / 19–2622 / 18–2522 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 19–2624 / 21–2624 / 22–26
Rain mm264 / 139–359294 / 170–387287 / 203–402229 / 119–324196 / 102–300155 / 103–307109 / 74–354109 / 77–317113 / 45–301137 / 56–312181 / 71–291222 / 110–294
DLI40 / 33–4237 / 33–3934 / 32–3731 / 28–3327 / 23–3025 / 20–2925 / 22–2930 / 26–3235 / 33–3639 / 35–4041 / 35–4241 / 34–43
RH %66 / 64–7267 / 64–7367 / 64–7367 / 63–7365 / 61–7365 / 61–7263 / 59–7163 / 59–7063 / 60–7164 / 60–7165 / 61–7266 / 62–72

Each figure is the median across the 38 grid cells holding the 48 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2113:6963 (-15.675, 168.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 38 distinct grid cells holding the 48 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2113:6963 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -15.50_168.125, lapse-corrected +316 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 378 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMaluku, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., New Caledonia, Vanuatu· introduced: Comoros, Assam, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Fiji, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Cook Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Hawaii, Mexico Southwest, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.202, 166.446 · in the densest population, 27 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 49 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 36 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 36 km away. 1604 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 49 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Alpinia purpurataAlpinia purpurataAlpinia purpurataAlpinia purpurataAlpinia purpurataAlpinia purpurataAlpinia purpurataAlpinia purpurata

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Sindhu Haridas, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Bere Mata, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Bruce Bailey, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Alpinia purpurata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antibacterial plant compounds, extracts and essential oils: An updated review on their effects and putative mechanisms of action
F.J. Álvarez-Martínez, Enrique Barrajón‐Catalán, María Herranz‐López, Vicente Micol (2021) · Phytomedicine
Correlation Study of Antioxidant Activity with Phenolic and Flavonoid Compounds in 12 Indonesian Indigenous Herbs
Yeni Maulidah Muflihah, Ganesh Gollavelli, Yong‐Chien Ling (2021) · Antioxidants
Plant extracts - importance in sustainable agriculture
Katarzyna Godlewska, Domenico Ronga, Izabela Michalak (2021) · Italian Journal of Agronomy
Database of the Amazon aromatic plants and their essential oils
José Guilherme S. Maia, Eloísa Helena de Aguiar Andrade (2009) · Química Nova
Biofilms in Surgical Site Infections: Recent Advances and Novel Prevention and Eradication Strategies
Andriy Hrynyshyn, Manuel Simões, Anabela Borges (2022) · Antibiotics
Virulence alterations in staphylococcus aureus upon treatment with the sub-inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics
Juan Chen, Huyue Zhou, Jingbin� Huang, Rong Zhang (2021) · Journal of Advanced Research
Insecticidal activities of Citrus aurantifolia essential oil against Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae)
Riju Sarma, Kamal Adhikari, Sudarshana Mahanta, Bulbuli Khanikor (2019) · Toxicology Reports
Biosynthesis and Characterization of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Using Root Extract of Zingiber Officinale
L.F.A. Anand Raj, E Jayalakshmy (2015) · Oriental Journal Of Chemistry
Hosts of Colletotrichum
Pedro Talhinhas (2023) · Mycosphere

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Alpinia 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 62 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.