Description: Perennial herbs with shoots with well-developed stems.
Leaves numerous.
Inflorescence terminal on shoots, a dense or loose head; bracts free, usually subtending a dense modified cyme of flowers, rarely a single flower; bracteoles tubular, non-tubular or absent. Outer tepal tube funnel-shaped, shallowly cleft; inner tepal tube usually shorter than outer, posterior lobe largest, at the apex terminating in a very short, usually hairy spur. Outer staminodes usually small or absent; labellum often large and showy; anther subsessile or with a well-developed filament. Ovary 1-locular or 3-locular.
Fruit a capsule, sometimes fleshy and irregularly dehiscent.
Distribution and occurrence: World: >250 species, Malesia & SW Pacific. Australia: 5 species (4 species endemic), Qld, N.S.W.
Text by Peter G. Wilson & S. M. Hastings
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Inflorescence 12–30 cm long; pedicels 10–20 mm long; outer tepals about 3 times as long as broad; ligule usually 10–15 mm long | Alpinia caerulea |
| Inflorescence 2–8 cm long; pedicels to 4 mm long; outer tepals about as long as broad; ligule 3–4 mm long | Alpinia arundelliana |
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