Hedychium flavescens

Cultivation Details

Hedychium flavescens is a plant of the humid tropics, where it can be found at elevations up to 2,000 metres, occasionally to 2,300 metres^[1]. It prefers areas with a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,000 - 5,000mm, a mean annual temperature of 11 - 20°c. Being native to high elevations, it can also tolerate cooler temperatures if growing in fully humid climates, and is known to tolerate light to moderate frosts, though they may kill above-ground plant parts^[1]. The plant prefers to grow in open, light-filled environments which are warm and moist, but it will readily colonise semi and full shade under forest canopies^[1]. Requires a well-drained soil of medium to high fertility^[1]. Hedychium flavescens has been introduced to many locations around the world as an ornamental and subsequently escaped cultivation to become a weed of significant economic importance in countries with favourable moist and warm climates. It is considered a noxious weed in New Zealand, where it threatens native forests; in La Réunion it outcompetes native plants and forms dense stands in wet areas such as ravine sides, roadsides, native forest margins and disturbed forests, and in Hawaii it tends to be confined to forest edges but also impacts negatively on the ecosystem. Its spread and dispersal is facilitated by vegetative regeneration of its dense rhizomes, which allows it to cover large areas of land and prevent the re-growth and establishment of native species, endangering rare and specialized plant communities^[1].