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 Photo# 2432 taken 22 August, 2000 by Dave Skinner at UC Berkeley Botanic Garden, CA - Elettaria cardamomum |
 Photo# 2436 taken 20 October, 2000 by Dave Skinner at Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, PA - Elettaria cardamomum |
 Photo# 2433 taken 10 April, 2001 by Dave Skinner at Como Park Conservatory, St. Paul, MN - Elettaria cardamomum |
 Photo# 2434 taken 10 April, 2001 by Dave Skinner at Como Park Conservatory, St. Paul, MN - Elettaria cardamomum |
 Photo# 2435 taken 10 April, 2001 by Dave Skinner at Como Park Conservatory, St. Paul, MN - Elettaria cardamomum |
 Photo# 6390 taken 12 February, 2002 by Dave Skinner at US Bot. Garden Conservatory, Washington, DC - Elettaria cardamomum |
 Photo# 12536 taken 24 August, 2005 by Dave Skinner at Jim Conyer's Garden Is this REAL cardamom plant? - Elettaria cardamomum |
 Photo# 12537 taken 24 August, 2005 by Dave Skinner at Jim Conyer's Garden Is this REAL cardamom plant? - Elettaria cardamomum |
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PLANT FAMILY: Zingiberaceae BOTANICAL NAME: Elettaria cardamomum TYPE PLANT: herb - HEIGHT: 9-10 ft (inches unless otherwise noted) - HABIT: Upright, Spreading - USES: Fruit, Foliage, Ornamental, Culinary, Greenhouse BLOOMING: Season-Summer Colors- Fragrance-Yes Profusion-Profuse USDA ZONES: to HEAT TOLERANCE:- good SOIL: Moisture-Moist, Well-drained Fertility-Moderately Rich pH-Neutral COMMON NAMES: bai dou kou, green cardamom, sha ren, SYNONYMS: Amomum cardamomum, BOTANICAL NOTES: TAXONOMY NOTES BY BRIAN MIDDLEDITCH - Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton: OK. But this is not Sha Ren ("Sand Seeds"), which is Amomum villosum Lour. But Bai Dou Kou is cardamom, and I suspect that Pai Tou Kou is, too. GINGERS OF PENINSULAR MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE, Dr. Kai Larsen, et al - on checklist LISTING AT: Denver Botanic Garden (Picture taken there) Image at Univ of Wisc- -Needs plenty of room as this plant eventually grows to a height and spread of 10 feet or more. HORTICULTURAL NOTES: GardenWeb - posting by Tim Chapman (lists@gingerwoodnursery.com) - About 99% of the people that have/sell this don't have the real thing. There are some floating around florida now, that are indeed the true Elettaria and not an Alpinia sp. If the leaves are smooth, then it is probably Alpinia nutans or one of the other Alpinia species being sold as Eletarria. The leaves are fragrant when crushed (on both of these gingers), which I think is how these types get confused. The seeds of the true cardamom are very difficult to sprout (ie get fresh seeds), but it has been done and I USE to have a few that a friend grew out. GARDEN COMPANION - Perennial. This plant is the source of the spice cardamon which is used in breadmaking, pastries; many different cuisines consider it an essential spice in their dishes. It is a lovely plant and very similar to ginger in appearance and cultivation. Flowers are held in fragrant clusters and are creamy white with a yellow and blue-striped lip. http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/engl/generic_frame.html?Afra_mel.html - Although cardamom is little valued in Western countries, it is among the oldest spices, very popular in Sri Lanka, India and Iran and an essential ingredient to Arab coffee (60% of the world production is exported in Arab countries). To prepare coffee flavoured with cardamom, the freshly ground seeds may be added to the ground coffee or a few pods may be put in the coffee pot. Bedouins (Arabic nomades) sometimes own coffee pots that can keep several cardamom capsules in their spouts; the coffee gets in contact with the spice only during being poured in the glass. Yet not all cardamom is consumed for coffee in Arab countries; it is also used for cookery. The spicy mixture baharat (see paprika from the Arabic peninsular contains cardamom as well as the fiery paste zhoug (see coriander) from Yemen, which is, by the way, the probable home country of the coffee plant. Arabs also like cardamom to their meat-and-rice dishes (e.g., kabsah), which may contain a multitude of spices similar to Indian biriyanis. To prepare these, layers of cooked rice and aromatic meat or vegetable dishes are placed in a large pot; after addition of dried fruits (e.g., raisins, fresh or dried pomegranate seeds), nuts (e.g., almonds) or even saffron water, the pot is sealed and heated in the oven. Unless their character is more sweet than spicy, Persian rice dishes are often sprinkled with sumac powder before serving; but sumac is virtually incompatible with dried fruits or saffron. Furthermore, cardamom is a popular spice in White Africa (which is the Islamic part of this continent, encompassing most of North and East Africa where population is predominantly Arabic) and appears in the Moroccan mixture ras el hanout (see cubeb pepper) or the famous Ethiopian spice berebere (see long pepper). In Europe, cardamom is rather unknown, but may appear in some cookie recipes (for example, German Lebkuchen). Nevertheless, usage is low, except in Scandinavian countries, where cardamom is popular not only for cookies and sweet breads but also for pastries and sausages; see also allspice. In the Moghul cuisine (Northern India, see black cumin), cardamom is abundantly used in the delicious rice dishes called biriyanis (see Indian bay-leaf), but it is also found in several mild meat dishes from the same region; typically, the pods are fried together with onion, Indian bay leaves and other sweet spices to intensify their fragrance. For a Southern Indian rice dish, see coconut. In Sri Lanka, the pods are added to fiery beef or chicken curries, together with cinnamon. Cardamom-flavoured sweets are found all over the Indian subcontinent. Sometimes, curry powders (see curry leaves) contain small amounts of cardamom; cardamom is also frequently added to the Northern Indian garam masala (see cumin), especially in Kashmir, where the Moghul influence is particularly strong. Kashmiri people like sweet green tea flavoured with cardamom pods; no-one who has ever visited Kashmir and lived in one of the famous house boats of Srinagar will ever forget its taste, but for the rest of his life associate this tea with Kashmiri family life and endless talks and discussion in front of the fuming water pipe (hookah). In the rest of India, black tee is much more common than green tea; spiced tea is, however, not so common in India as its popularity among Westeners in Indian restaurants might suggest. Spiced tea (chai masala) is, in India, a luxury one cannot afford every day; the most common flavourings are cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and even black pepper. The seeds lose their flavour quickly when ground; even left entire, the seed show a loss of about 40% of the essential oil per year. Therefore, only whole cardamom pods should bought; before usage, the pods should be crushed. Green pods are significantly superior in fragrance to the yellow or white bleached ones. Black cardamom (or brown cardamom) is a collective name of several cardamom related plants growing in mountains from Central Africa to Vietnam. Most frequently, the Nepalese cardamom is traded in the West. This spice's taste differs drastically from that of green cardamom; neither can act as a substitute for the other. BOTANICAL GARDENS: (Gingers Only - Listing of locations where this plant can be seen.) Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago, Illinois, USA Denver Botanic Garden, Denver, Colorado, USA Fullerton Arboretum, Fullerton, California, USA Harry P. Leu Gardens, Medicinal Plant Garden, Southern Cross University, East Lismore, Australia Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory, "DOMES", Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |