Alpinia purpurata (Red Ginger)

Native from the Maluku Islands of Indonesia to the southwestern Pacific, this evergreen perennial herb forms large clumps from creeping rhizomes and can reach about 13 feet tall. Its small white flowers emerge between showy red or pink bracts, which make it a widely grown tropical cut flower. In Hawaii, it produces flowers year-round, with the greatest production in summer. Leafy plantlets can develop among the bracts and be rooted to produce new plants; rhizome division also provides propagation material. Seeds are rarely produced. It has naturalized on Kauaʻi and Molokaʻi in Hawaii. Photographed in the Cauca Valley, Colombia.