Torch Ginger

This is quite a large, spectacular flower, growing in the Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo. Photo was taken on my last visit, on 6 October 2014.

"Now cultivated throughout the tropics, torch ginger is thought to be native to Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Thailand (via Flora of China), though other sites suggest a native distribution restricted to a few islands in Indonesia. Whatever its origin, widescale planting of Etlingera elatior has made torch ginger the hallmark species of this genus of approximately 70 species. That's a very loose approximation, because researcher Dr. Axel Dalberg Poulsen reports that Borneo alone contains 29 species...." Information taken, with thanks, from the UBC Botany Photo of the Day website for May 31, 2007.