Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems about one meter tall, bearing narrow leaf blades. The inflorescences bear flowers having pale yellow petals with purple edges, and arise directly from the rhizome on separate shoots.
Ginger section
Image: Koeh 146 no text
Image: Ginger inflorescence
Ginger flower
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow horizontally. The rhizome also retains the ability to allow new shoots to grow upwards.
An antique spurge plant, Euphorbia antiquorum, sending out white rhizomes
Stolons growing from nodes from a corm of Crocosmia
Turmeric rhizome, whole and ground into a spice