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