Weeds of Australia - Fact Sheet

Top Scientific Name Family Common Names Origin Naturalised Distribution Notes

Scientific Name

Hedychium coronarium J. Koenig

Family

Zingiberaceae

Common Names

butterfly ginger, butterfly lily, cinnamon jasmine, garland flower, garland lily, ginger lily, white butterfly ginger, white butterfly ginger lily, white garland lily, white garland-lily, white ginger, white ginger butterfly lily, white ginger lily, white ginger-lily, white gingerlily, wild ginger

Origin

Native to China, Taiwan, Myanmar and the Indian Sub-continent (i.e. India and Nepal).

Naturalised Distribution

Occasionally naturalised in some parts of eastern Australia (i.e. in south-eastern and northern Queensland).

Naturalised overseas in southern Africa, south-eastern USA (i.e. Florida, Louisiana and Georgia), Central America, South America, the Azores, the Mascarenes and on several Pacific islands (e.g. American Samoa, the Cook Islands, the Galápagos Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Palau, Western Samoa, Tonga and Hawaii).

Notes

This widely cultivated garden ornamental is regarded as a potential environmental weed or "sleeper weed" in Queensland and New South Wales. It was recently ranked among the top 200 most invasive plant species in south-eastern Queensland and appears on the New South Wales North Coast environmental weeds list.

White ginger (Hedychium coronarium) grows up to 2 m tall and produces a thick mat of creeping underground stems (i.e. rhizomes) close to the soil surface. Under favourable conditions, it forms extensive thickets which replace native plants and suppresses their regeneration. It prefers wetter habitats and is a potential weed of native bushland, rainforests and other closed forests, forest margins, watercourses and riparian areas.

White ginger (Hedychium coronarium) is has the potential to be a significant environmental weed in the sub-tropical and warmer temperate regions of Australia, particularly in coastal wetland areas subject to seasonal flooding. Its weed potential may be similar to Kahili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum) and yellow ginger (Hedychium flavescens), which are both aggressive invaders of native forests in New Zealand and Hawaii. White ginger (Hedychium coronarium) itself is widely naturalised in wet habitats on all islands in Hawaii, and is often locally abundant in Fiji. It also readily hybridises with these other species.