Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Elettaria cardamomum

Edible: Fruit, Herb, Spice, Seeds, Leaves

A ginger family herb. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows to 3 m high and spreads to 1 m across. It has a clump of leafy aerial stems and then thick fleshy underground stems. The leaves are long and can be 1 m x 30 cm. They are dark green and alternate. The leaves are paler and softly hairy underneath. The flowers are green and white and produced on a branched flower stalk near the ground. The flowers have a violet tip. Seed capsules with several wrinkled seeds develop. The capsule has 3 cells. They are pale green and have a sweet smell.

It is a tropical plant. It grows from sea level up to about 1,800 m altitude in the tropics. In PNG it is mostly between 550-1,700 m above sea level. It prefers warm, rich, moist soils. It needs a protected and partly shaded position. It is drought and frost tender. Seed need a temperature between 19 and 24°C to grow. Plants need a temperature above 10°C. It suits hardiness zones 10-12.

Common Names: Cardamom, Ceylon cardamom, Bai dou kou, Buah pelaga, Cardamone, Choti-elachi, Ela, Elach, Elaichi, Elchi, Ella-kai, Enasal, Ensal, Hai, Ilaayaci, Illaichi, Kapulaga, Karadamungu, Kardemon, Krakao sbat, Kravan, Luk grawan, Luk kravan, Pai-tou-k'ou, Periyayalum, Phalazee, Phalar-phyu, Phalar-yaing, Upakunchika, Veldode, Xiao dou kou, Yelak-kayalu, Yelakkai, Yelakki, Yelam

Synonyms: 

Alpinia cardamomum (L.) Roxb.;
Amomum cardamomum L.;
Amomum ensal Raeusch.;
Amomum racemosum Lam.;
Amomum repens Sonn.;
Amomum uncinatum Stokes;
Cardamomum malabaricum Pritz.;
Cardamomum minus (Gaertn.) Puntze;
Cardamomum officinale Salisb.;
Cardamomum verum Oken;
Elletaria cardamomum var. minus Watt;
Elettaria cardamomum var. minuscula Burkill;
Matonia cardamomum (L.) Stephenson & J. M. Churchill;
Zingiber minus Gaertn.;