Cardamom

Cardamom

English name: Cardamom

Local name: ‘Elach’

Scientific name: Elettaria  cardamomum (L.) Maton

Taxonomic Position according to Cronquist (1981)

Kingdom:       Plantae

Division:         Megnoliophyta

Class:              Liliopsida

Subclass:        Liliidae

Order:            Zingiberales

Family:           Zingiberaceae

Genus:            Elettaria

Species:            E. cardamomum

Botanical Description of Cardamom

Habit: Cardamom is a herbaceous perennial crop.

Stem: A fully grown plant is about 2-4 meters high. The real stem of the plant is the underground rhizome.

Leaf: The leaves are 35 cm long and 7-10 cm wide, lanceolate, with acuminate tip, dark green, either glamorous or pubescent, soft, velvety undersurface; clumps 3-4 meters in
height.

Flower: Inflorescence or the long panicles with racemose clusters arise from the underground rhizome; but come up above the soil; the flower bisexual, irregular, small, pale white fragrant, alternate, short, stalked, solitary at the each point of the racemes; flower opens in succession from the base to the top and develops in to fruits calyx is cylindrical and persistent, corolla tube shortly exerted; pod and capsule sub-globose and rounded.

Fruit: The fruit is tricolor capsule. Seeds are black when

fully ripe in a capsule and embedded or covered with their white mucilaginous coat, seeds are 15-20 per capsule with a hard seed coat.

Economic Importance

• Widely used as spices
• Also used as medicine