Plant · P-640

Mango Ginger

Curcuma amada

Mango ginger looks like turmeric and tastes like green mango - the rhizome and the foliage both carry the aroma, which is what the name records. It is used as a mild ginger-flavoured spice, mostly in pickles and chutneys, and has a long medicinal record for digestion and for coughs and bronchitis, with the mashed root put on ulcers, bruises, wounds and sprains. As a crop it wants what a monsoon forest floor gives it: humus-rich soil that stays moist but drains, shade rather than open sun, and a warm season long enough to fill the rhizome, which takes roughly six months from planting to maturity. It handles a seasonal dry period better than most gingers. Rhizome rot is the disease that costs a crop, so drainage matters more than fertility.