Prospero Alpini was a Venetian physician and botanist. He travelled around Egypt and served as the fourth prefect in charge of the botanical garden of Padua. He wrote several botanical treatises which covered exotic plants of economic and medicinal value. His description of coffee and banana plants are considered the oldest in European literature. The ginger-family genus Alpinia was named in his honour by Carolus Linnaeus.
Alpini referred to this tree as Bon and noted the popularity of the drink caova made from it. It is thought to be Coffea arabica.
1586 painting of Alpini by Leandro Bassano at the Staatsgallerie, Stuttgart
Historia Aegypti naturalis, 1735
Alpinia is a genus of flowering plants in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. Species are native to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, where they occur in tropical and subtropical climates. Several species are cultivated as ornamental plants.
Alpinia
Alpinia hainanensis 'Shengzhen'
Alpinia hainanensis 'Shengzhen'
Alpinia Calcarata