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Hedychium flavescens Carey ex Roscoe

Yellow ginger; Cream-ginger; Cream garland lily; Yellow ginger-lily

Zingiberaceae · China South-Central, Assam +4

Sow seed
Hedychium flavescens, photograph (c) Kyle Elshoff, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hedychium flavescens, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHedychium flavescens, photograph (c) amantedarmanin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hedychium flavescens, photograph (c) amantedarmanin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hedychium flavescens, photograph (c) Shaun Swanepoel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hedychium flavescens, photograph (c) Shaun Swanepoel, some rights reserved (CC BY) 60 photographs ›

At a glance

Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.2°C
Record low 1.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
May and Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,999mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May, shaded
  6. Jun, shaded
  7. Jul, shaded
  8. Aug, shaded
  9. Sep, shaded
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Hedychium flavescens is a perennial flowering plant from the Zingiberaceae (the ginger family). It is native to the Himalayas, Sichuan, and northern Vietnam, and naturalized in various other lands (South Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, India, Sri Lanka, French Polynesia, Hawaii, etc.).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hedychium flavescens", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hedychium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,530 mm of 1,927 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.3 °C against a yearly mean of 19.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,927 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,530 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 434 mm, driest month January at 20 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,314 mm to 3,072 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,999 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,927 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.2 °C, the absolute minimum 1.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 4.6 °C to 10.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.9 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 72% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -894 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Hedychium flavescens through the yearWarmest months May and June, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 6.5 °C; 1,927 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°35.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER1.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 22–38RH 54–72%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 18 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
FigureJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 13–2419 / 15–2724 / 19–3026 / 21–3127 / 22–2927 / 23–2826 / 23–2826 / 23–2825 / 22–2723 / 20–2621 / 16–2418 / 13–22
Night °C7 / 5–118 / 6–1211 / 8–1514 / 12–1817 / 15–2019 / 17–2220 / 17–2220 / 16–2219 / 15–2115 / 12–1811 / 8–148 / 5–11
Rain mm20 / 11–4531 / 16–5147 / 29–8497 / 57–186202 / 126–325254 / 157–522434 / 209–720409 / 238–586231 / 160–370121 / 67–15860 / 12–8521 / 13–35
DLI25 / 15–2930 / 19–3436 / 25–3938 / 30–4134 / 28–3929 / 24–3325 / 21–2826 / 23–3027 / 24–2826 / 21–2925 / 19–2622 / 17–26
RH %60 / 55–7257 / 49–7154 / 49–6757 / 50–6763 / 58–6969 / 65–7372 / 68–7471 / 68–7269 / 66–7166 / 62–7063 / 59–6961 / 58–69
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 18 grid cells holding the 19 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1294:5576 (25.275, 98.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 18 distinct grid cells holding 19 of the 19 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1294:5576 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.50_98.750, lapse-corrected -894 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1086 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Assam, East Himalaya, Nepal, Myanmar, Vietnam · introduced: Azores, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, St.Helena, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, India, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Thailand, Samoa, Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Hawaii, Juan Fernández Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker19.931, 99.044 · in the densest population, 9 records (36% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 25 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 19 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 10 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 596 km away. 1103 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 6 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 25 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Photographs: (c) Kyle Elshoff, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) amantedarmanin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Shaun Swanepoel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Other Hedychium 17 in the reference

Names & registers

Also known as Hedychium coronarium var. flavescens; Hedychium coronarium var. subditum; Hedychium emeiense; Hedychium panzhuum; Hedychium subditum. (GBIF Backbone)

The record

Family
Zingiberaceae
Described by
Carey ex Roscoe
Native to
China South-Central, Assam, East Himalaya +3
Wild records
25 in range · 10 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 112 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (93 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 7 at a herbarium, 12 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.50_98.750, lapse-corrected -894 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 40 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…