Singapore's Ginger

A rare ginger previously unknown to science was discovered in our forests just recently.

Ever since I joined the Singapore Botanic Gardens in 2006, I have always wondered if there was any possibility of a still-undescribed species hidden somewhere in Singapore, despite chances of such a discovery being close to zero.

Today, less than 3% of Singapore is still covered by primary forest and all specimens deposited in our herbarium are identified. There is nothing to suggest that Singapore's gingers are not completely represented.

On an ordinary day in 2012, my NParks colleague William Ng came out of the forest in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve with two small ginger plants. They did not look like anything I had seen before in Singapore, although the leaves reminded me of several known ginger species from Malaysia.

We tried to return to the location where they were found, but with no GPS reading, it took more than a year to finally find the plant again, which turned up in more than one location. None were in bloom, but it was only matter of patience and fortnightly monitoring before we were able to observe the flowers.

Six months later, we started to see the first signs of flowering. Finally, just on my birthday, there it was – a beautiful spindle-shaped inflorescence, formed by orange-red, somewhat inflated bracts and a pale yellow, almost white, flower.

The author and colleague out in the field looking for rare gingers.

I was overjoyed, but at the same time, I knew I had my work cut out for me. Gingers belong to a taxonomically complicated plant group and the common saying "same, same, but different" sums them up best.

Was this a known species from somewhere else, in which case the finding would mean a new distributional record for it in Singapore, or was it an entirely new species we had on our hands? The combination of characteristics such as a small habit, spindle-shaped orange inflorescence with pale yellow flowers and narrow leaves revealed that this ginger belongs to the complicated subgroup of similar-looking species that are related to Zingiber gracile.

The next steps were to carefully read all the original publications describing the related species, and to study the original dried plant specimens (known as type material) located in various herbaria. Akin to a matching game, this process would enable us to identify the unknown ginger if we could match it perfectly to an already described species – the existence of any differences would allow us to strike each known species off the list in a process of elimination.

However, some of the original descriptions reviewed were sparse in details, and the quality of the herbarium material posed an obstacle to our investigation. This required a quick trip to the type localities of the two most closely related species, Zingiber aurantiacum and Zingiber elatius, to observe flowering material and determine if they were indeed different from the Singapore plants.

Luck was with me as both species were flowering during my family holidays to Fraser's Hill and Penang, where I photographed them. I was therefore able to eliminate them as matches to the Singapore ginger.

A check against the Zingiber aurantiacum helped confirmed the Singapore ginger was a different species.

It became clear that the Singapore ginger was unknown to science.

The absence of any existing herbarium material from Singapore in various herbaria hinted that this species was rare, and based on our knowledge, we knew that this species qualifies to be considered as 'Critically Endangered'.

The habit of the newly discovered ginger plants.

Even before our ginger flowered, and when we were still unsure how precious and rare it was, several plants had been established in cultivation by the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

It is truly good fortune that unlike most native ginger species, this new species can be propagated from stem cuttings and once enough material is propagated it can eventually be planted in various nature reserves.

As this ginger is endemic Singapore, it was easy to come up with the name Zingiber singapurense.

As soon as it became clear that Singapore has one ginger more and I have one dream less, it was time to prepare a scientific publication describing and illustrating this new species. Choosing a name for this little ginger was a no-brainer.

This small yet resilient species with orange-red bracts and almost white flowers, endemic to Singapore, is just about the perfect gift for this little red dot of ours, which has somehow accidentally become my home. Zingiber singapurense was officially published in The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore in November 2014, just in time for us to celebrate our nation's Golden Jubilee.

Happy 50th Birthday, Singapore!

Text and photos by Jana Leong-Škorničková, except for photo of author in the field by Michael Leong

Glossary
Bract – a modified and specialised leaf in the inflorescence
Endemic – animal or plant that is native to the country
Habit – general appearance of plant
Inflorescence – the part of the plant that bears the flowers, including all its bracts, branches and flowers, but excluding unmodified leaves

Some of the botanical terms were taken from Kew Plant Glossary