Plant Datasheet for Costus maculatus

The African Plant Database lists this species as accepted but uncertain. A synonym listed is Costus afer var. maculatus. Biology : New combination by Baker, Fl. Trop. Afr. 7: 299, 1898. According to him, this variety differs from C. afer by the flowering stems produced direct from the root [rhizome], covered by imbricate leaf sheaths. Cited by him from Sierra Leone

There are several African species that are easily confused with each other as they are superficially similar looking. The various names and PIDs where information is stored on this website are as follows:
Costus afer -PID 3430 - 2 flowers per bract
Costus albus -PID 4868 - single flower per bract
Costus dallachyi - on tag at National Tropical Botanic Garden
Costus deistelii -PID 3754
Costus dinklagei -PID 7279
Costus dubius -PID3597 - single flower per bract
Costus maculatus -PID 3604 - 2 flowers per bract
Costus megalobractea -PID 3755
These plants have also been circulated from Europeon botanical gardens originating at the Severoceska Bot. Garden in Czech Republic under the name Tapeinochilos spectabile - believed to actually be Costus maculatus.

W3Tropicos - http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/pick.html - Costus maculatus Ker Gawl. Author(s): ORSTOM Date: 1988 Publication: List of Vascular Plants of Gabon with Synonymy. There is also a Costus afer var. maculatus Baker. Specimen located at Cameroon Southwest: Korup National Park, 50 m, 04.55N 08.50E, 6-16 July 1983, D. Thomas 2225 (MO).

Described in Koechlin's Flore du Gabon, listed as syn. For C. afer var. maculatus.

Schumann describes this species and places in subgenus Eucostus - Das Pflanzenreich IV, 1904.

ACCESSION NOTES:
R2258 was received from the Smithsonian greenhouses, USBRG#1994-671. This collection has been vouchered at the UC Berkeley, Jepsen Herbarium, UC2045784.

GINGERSRUS CATALOG LISTING:
Costus maculatus is a little known Costus from east central Africa. It is a basal bloomer and unlike most Costus species it produces TWO flowers per bract. The foliage is your basic green spiral ginger foliage, growing to about 4-5 feet tall on thin, but strong upright stems. The flowers to me are especially pretty.

Hardiness is untested, but this Costus did survive outdoors last winter to mid twenties temperatures in my zone 8B garden in a rather mild winter. I am growing it in light shade with maybe an hour or two of afternoon sun. Like most other Costus species, it seems to prefer moist, but well drained, fertile, organic soil.