Species
+

Hedychium coronarium J.Koenig

'awapuhi-ke'oke'o, Bunga Ncole, Butterfly ginger lily, Butterfly-ginger

Climate known 16 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

Hedychium coronarium, the white garland-lily or white ginger lily, is a perennial flowering plant in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is native to the forest understorey of Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hedychium coronarium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Hedychium

Hedychium [ha-DEE-kee-um] is a genus of flowering plants in the ginger family Zingiberaceae, native to lightly wooded habitats in Asia. There are approximately 70-80 known species, native to India, Southeast Asia, and Madagascar. Some species have become widely naturalized in other lands, and considered invasive in some places.

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

Family
Zingiberaceae
Described by
J.Koenig
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan +7
Wild records
395 in range· 107 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2547mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 399 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–35DLI
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 Hedychium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2547 mm a year, wettest June at 399 mm, driest December at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 9.6 °C habitat night).
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 Amomum filiforme Hunter ex Ridl.; Amomum filiforme W.Hunter; Gandasulium coronarium (J.Koenig) Kuntze; Gandasulium lingulatum (Hassk.) Kuntze; Hedychium chrysoleucum Hook. and 15 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Hedychium, 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 summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1820 mm of 2547 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.2 °C against a yearly mean of 22.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

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 2547 mm a year, wettest June at 399 mm, driest December at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2547 mm a year at the habitat, 1820 mm of it May to September. Wettest month June at 399 mm, driest December at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1540 mm to 4311 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 21 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 35 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 9.6 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.6 °C, the absolute minimum 4.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.5 °C to 17.6 °C), warmest day 28.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 9.6 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Hedychium, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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: 62 to 68% 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 18 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from 12 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2547 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 254 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 21–35RH 62–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 254 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 °C18 / 15–2819 / 16–3022 / 19–3224 / 22–3327 / 24–3228 / 26–3029 / 26–3128 / 26–3128 / 25–3026 / 22–2923 / 20–2819 / 17–28
Night °C12 / 8–1813 / 9–1915 / 11–2119 / 14–2421 / 17–2523 / 19–2524 / 20–2624 / 20–2623 / 19–2520 / 16–2317 / 13–2114 / 9–18
Rain mm50 / 8–220106 / 13–269140 / 19–227181 / 48–245299 / 127–409399 / 207–648374 / 222–726389 / 246–695359 / 194–595146 / 58–51857 / 25–39547 / 9–255
DLI21 / 14–3423 / 16–3928 / 22–4131 / 27–4232 / 29–3932 / 26–3435 / 24–3832 / 25–3529 / 27–3227 / 22–3123 / 17–3121 / 14–32
RH %63 / 55–7064 / 53–7064 / 52–7065 / 55–7165 / 60–7167 / 63–7266 / 64–7268 / 65–7167 / 64–7165 / 61–7063 / 57–7062 / 54–69

Each figure is the median across the 254 grid cells holding the 379 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 1297:6032 (25.125, 121.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.2 °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 254 distinct grid cells holding the 379 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1297:6032 (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 25.00_121.875, lapse-corrected +218 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 319 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.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam· introduced: Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Gulf of Guinea Is., KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Is., Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Hawaii, Florida, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.645, 121.125 · in the densest population, 276 records (70% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 395 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 107 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 16 km away. 1386 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 16 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 395 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hedychium coronariumHedychium coronariumHedychium coronariumHedychium coronariumHedychium coronariumHedychium coronariumHedychium coronariumHedychium coronarium

Photographs: Pablo Cauã da Silva Toledo, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; liriodobrejoufscar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Robin White, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); renjus box, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 Hedychium coronarium, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

WHY ARE SOME FLORAL NECTARS SCENTED?
Robert A. Raguso (2004) · Ecology
An overview of invasive plants in Brazil
Rafael Dudeque Zenni, Sílvia Renate Ziller (2011) · Revista Brasileira de Botânica
Chemical diversity, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the essential oils from Indian populations of Hedychium coronarium Koen
Asit Ray, Sudipta Jena, Biswabhusan Dash, Basudeba Kar (2017) · Industrial Crops and Products
Cytotoxic Diterpenes from the Rhizomes ofHedychium coronarium
Hideji Itokawa, Hiroshi Morita, Ikuko Katou, Koichi Takeya (1988) · Planta Medica
Labdane-type Diterpenes with Inhibitory Effects on Increase in Vascular Permeability and Nitric Oxide Production from Hedychium coronarium
Hisashi Matsuda, Toshio Morikawa, Yasuko Sakamoto, Iwao Toguchida (2002) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
Antimicrobial activity and chemical composition of essential oil from Hedychium coronarium
Beena Joy, Akhila Rajan, Emilia T. Abraham (2007) · Phytotherapy Research
Phytochemistry and pharmacology of ornamental gingers, Hedychium coronarium and Alpinia purpurata: a review
Eric Wei Chiang Chan, Siu Kuin Wong (2015) · Journal of Chinese Integrative Medicine
New Farnesane-Type Sesquiterpenes, Hedychiols A and B 8,9-Diacetate, and Inhibitors of Degranulation in RBL-2H3 Cells from the Rhizome of Hedychium coronarium.
Toshio Morikawa, Hisashi Matsuda, Yasuko Sakamoto, Kazuho Ueda (2002) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin

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 Hedychium 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 8 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried 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 2026-09-19; 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 112 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.