Edible: Shoots, fruit, Spice
A ginger family herb. It grows 1.5-3 m tall. The rhizomes are above ground and covered with a scale like sheath. The leaves do not have leaf stalks. The leaves are 25-35 cm long by 3-7 cm wide. The capsule is purple, green or brown. They are 1.5-2 cm long and 1.2-2 cm wide. They have soft spines. The seeds are angled and have a strong scent.
Possibly now Wurfbainia villosa (Lour.) Skornick. & A. D. Poulsen
It is a subtropical plant. In Southern China it grows between 600-800 m above sea level.
Common Names: Malabar cardamom, Tavoy cardamom, Mang nian, Sha ren
Synonym:
Amomum echinosphaera K. Schum.;
Cardamomum villosum (Lour.) Kuntze;
Elettaria villosa (Lour.) Miq.;
Zingiber villosum (Lour.) Stokes;