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Hedychium gardnerianum
A beautiful, young plant about 2.5 ft tall, red at the base of the stem. Each leaf has a large central vein. It flowers in summer.
Lush tropical rainforest with volcanic soil at 5000 ft. altitude. The native range is the himalayas.
Someone or an animal had snapped the stem. It is invasive in Hawaii.
A beautiful ginger native to the Himalayas, but highly invasive in Hawaiian rainforests. Spread by birds and coming to dominate forest understories and crowd out native seedlings. The elevation you give (5000 ft) definitely sounds like kahili ginger, although two other Hedychium species (Hedychium coronarium - white ginger & Hedychium coronarium - yellow ginger) are also naturalized in the islands. When not in flower, kahili ginger can be identified by leaves that are usually entirely glabrous, or without hairs, while yellow & white ginger have a light covering of hair on the undersides of the leaves.
Spotted on Jan 4, 2013
Submitted on Jan 6, 2013
