Flowers are usually large and showy, and the stamens are often modified (staminodes) to also form colourful petal-like structures that attract pollinators.
Phytochemistry: Often containing raphides,[9][13] Specific characteristics which help to distinguish this order include a herbaceous arborescent stem, distichous phyllotaxy, large petiolate leaves in which the petioles are often long, parallel and transverse venation diverging laterally from a prominent common midrib, and inflorescences of conspicuous colorful bracts (bracteate inflorescence) and the substitution of one to five rudimentary staminodia for fertile stamens.
[6][17] The apomorphies (derived characteristics common to a taxonomic group) are considered to be specialised isomorphic root hair cells, penni-parallel leaf venation, supervolute ptyxis (left and right halves of immature leaf lamina rolled into each other), diaphragmed air chambers in leaves and stem, presence of intracellular silica bodies, epigynous flowers and an inferior ovary, pollen grains without distinctive aperture but with a reduced exine layer and an elaborated intine layer, nuclear endosperm development, and arillate seeds.
[18][19][20] "The Zingiberiflorae, whether treated as a separate superorder, as here, or an order in a more widely circumscribed unit, is one of the most indisputably natural suprafamilial groups.
"[21]The Zingiberales have always been considered a unique and coherent (monophyletic) group, although accounting for <4% of extant monocots, which has led some authors to suggest they should constitute a higher taxonomic rank than order.
[16] They were first described by August Grisebach, their botanical authority, in 1854 as Zingiberides, an order of monocotyledons, subdivided into two families, Scitamineae and Musaceae.
Using molecular phylogenetics, which was first applied to the order in 1993,[30] the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) system (1998),[4] (which generally followed Dahlgren, but with fewer divisions) confirmed the position of Zingiberales as a monophyletic order within the monocots, placing it in the commelinoid clade, as sister group to Commelinales, which Dahlgren had treated within a separate superorder.
[32] Arecales Poales Zingiberales Commelinales The order, which now has more than 2,600 species, distributed in 68 genera over eight families, has been subdivided from early times.
[7] The failure to resolve the ancient rapid divergences of this order with multi-gene phylogenies and plastid data has important implications for understanding the evolution of characteristics.
[38] Zingiberaceae Costaceae Cannaceae Marantaceae Lowiaceae Strelitziaceae Heliconiaceae Musaceae The common ancestor of the Zingiberales together with those of its sister order, the Commelinales, is estimated to have originated 158 Mya (million years ago) in the Early Cretaceous, with separation of the two orders between 80 and 124 Mya, and with rapid radiation into the major lineages in the mid Cretaceous ca.
[7] Probably the ancestral Zingiberales were distributed in tropical Gondwanal and encompassing present-day Americas, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
[35] The current distribution of the Zingiberales seems to be a product of numerous secondary and tertiary dispersal events between the major tropical regions of the world.
[12] The evolution of floral morphology within Zingiberales demonstrates a marked correlation between the reduction of the number of fertile stamens, and increased petaloidy.
Of the eight families, Heliconiaceae, Marantaceae, and Costaceae are predominantly neotropical and Zingiberaceae most prevalent in Southeast Asian wet understory habitats.
While some herbaceous Zingiberaceae such as Alpinia boia can attain a height of ten metres, only one species is a true canopy plant (Ravenala madagascariensis – Strelitziaceae).
The latter, a Madagascar endemic, has thick, palm-like trunks which push the fan-shaped crown of leaves up into the top layers of the forest.
Some Zingiberales prefer a greater degree of light and are found in forest glades or margins, or in open secondary growth along streams and rivers.
[35] The large family Zingiberaceae has a number of subfamilies, one of which, Zingiberoideae, has members that have adapted to Southeast Asia's monsoonal climates.
In contrast some Zingiberales, including taxa from Marantaceae, Heliconiaceae, Cannaceae (e.g. Canna glauca) have adopted an aquatic habitat and are found along river margins, ponds, and swampy areas, with their rhizomes rooted underwater.
Zingiberales also include sources of traditional medicines and spices, e.g. Alpinieae such as Elettaria and Amomum (cardamom) and galanga and Curcuma (turmeric).