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Hedychium spicatum; photograph (c) dhfischer, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) dhfischer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-08-22

Hedychium spicatum Sm.

Spiked ginger lily

Zingiberaceae · China South-Central, Tibet +7

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Hedychium spicatum, photograph (c) dhfischer, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hedychium spicatum, photograph (c) Divya Mudappa, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Hedychium spicatum, photograph (c) Divya Mudappa, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Hedychium spicatum, photograph (c) Divya Mudappa, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Hedychium spicatum, photograph (c) Divya Mudappa, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Hedychium spicatum, photograph (c) Divya Mudappa, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 44 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-1.2°C
Record low -6.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
22°C
May and Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,166mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June 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 spicatum is a plant species native to China (Guizhou, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan), the Himalayas, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hedychium spicatum", 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 (1,596 mm of 2,141 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.8 °C against a yearly mean of 13.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

2,141 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,596 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 554 mm, driest month November at 22 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,386 mm to 3,423 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,166 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,141 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: 23 to 41 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -1.2 °C, the absolute minimum -6.0 °C, 439 frost nights in 44 years, 10.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -1.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -7.8 °C to 6.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.0 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.2 °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 73% 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 +318 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 spicatum through the yearWarmest months May and June, mean daily high 22 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -1.1 °C; 2,141 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost35.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-6.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 23–41RH 54–73%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 35 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
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C11 / 4–1612 / 4–1817 / 7–2120 / 11–2522 / 14–2622 / 17–2721 / 17–2521 / 17–2520 / 16–2419 / 13–2216 / 9–2013 / 6–17
Night °C-1 / -8–60 / -7–74 / -3–108 / 0–1312 / 4–1615 / 9–1816 / 11–1916 / 11–1914 / 8–188 / 3–144 / -1–101 / -4–8
Rain mm35 / 16–11644 / 24–13680 / 37–15688 / 45–242162 / 78–295299 / 143–519554 / 304–894439 / 258–897304 / 169–48391 / 51–18222 / 13–6423 / 14–64
DLI24 / 20–3029 / 25–3536 / 31–4141 / 35–4539 / 32–4632 / 25–4227 / 21–3026 / 23–3027 / 24–3328 / 24–3425 / 21–2923 / 19–28
RH %55 / 51–6155 / 51–6254 / 50–6156 / 47–6561 / 47–7068 / 55–7572 / 68–7873 / 67–7568 / 63–7361 / 53–6957 / 51–6556 / 49–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 35 grid cells holding the 47 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 1190:5162 (30.475, 78.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.2 °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 35 distinct grid cells holding 47 of the 47 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1190:5162 (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 30.50_78.125, lapse-corrected +318 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1722 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, Tibet, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Thailand · 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 marker27.741, 98.666 · in the densest population, 60 records (41% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphyte or lithophyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 148 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 47 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 88 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 101 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 148 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Hedychium spicatum, photograph 1did not loadHedychium spicatum, photograph 2did not loadHedychium spicatum, photograph 3did not loadHedychium spicatum, photograph 4did not loadHedychium spicatum, photograph 5did not loadHedychium spicatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) dhfischer, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Divya Mudappa, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5).

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

Roscoea purpurea Roscoea purpurea Kakoli ginger Photo: CC BY, Jagdish Singh NegiDaphne papyracea Daphne papyracea Thymelaeaceae Photo: CC BY, Ramnarayan KDicliptera raui Dicliptera raui Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt StüberAlnus nepalensis Alnus nepalensis Nepal alder Photo: CC BY, Jakkarin BurananitDaphniphyllum himalense Daphniphyllum himalense Redneck Rhododendron Photo: CC BY, T R Shankar RamanPolystichum squarrosum Polystichum squarrosum Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Anastasia Titovets

Other Hedychium 17 in the reference

Hedychium boloveniorum Zingiberaceae Hedychium bousigonianum Zingiberaceae Hedychium coccineum Hedychium coccineum Red ginger lily Photo: CC BY, EliHedychium coronarium Hedychium coronarium White garland-lily Photo: CC0, author not statedHedychium densiflorum Hedychium densiflorum Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossHedychium ellipticum Hedychium ellipticum Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, chintan shethHedychium flavescens Hedychium flavescens Yellow ginger Photo: CC BY, Christopher HynesHedychium flavum Hedychium flavum Zingiberaceae Photo: Public domain, Daderot Hedychium forrestii Zingiberaceae Hedychium gardnerianum Hedychium gardnerianum Kahili ginger Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaHedychium greenii Hedychium greenii Zingiberaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHedychium horsfieldii Hedychium horsfieldii Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt Stüber all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Gandasulium sieboldii; Gandasulium spicatum; Hedychium acuminatum; Hedychium album; Hedychium sieboldii and 6 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Hedychium flavescens Lodd. ex Lindl. is an older name of this species, not Hedychium flavescens, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Zingiberaceae
Described by
Sm.
Native to
China South-Central, Tibet, Assam +6
Wild records
148 in range · 88 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 30.50_78.125, lapse-corrected +318 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 24 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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