Plant · P-639

Zedoary

Curcuma zedoaria

Zedoary is white turmeric - a rhizome crop of damp deciduous forest in India and east Asia that yields three quite different things from one plant. The rhizome is the source of shoti, a very easily digested starch used like arrowroot in infant and invalid food; it is also eaten sliced raw in salads, dried as a condiment, and used medicinally as an aromatic bitter for indigestion, nausea and bloating. The leaves taste of lemongrass and flavour cooked dishes, and the young shoot hearts and flower spikes are eaten as vegetables. It grows equally well in full sun or shade, takes seasonal drought better than most of its family, and wants roughly 300 days from planting to a harvestable rhizome. Cold is the limit - the plant is injured below 50 F and the rhizomes are lifted and stored dry where winters bite.