Hi Peter, yes mine sounds as you describe, around a metre, light-ish thin-ish green leaves and I've only used the leaves as flavouring which is very pleasant. Jerry Coleby- Williams has some info on both true and false on his site jerry-coleby-williams.net cheers On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 7:23 PM, Tim Chapman <tim@gingerwoodnursery.com>wrote: > > The problem with the misidentifications is that many Alpinia and related > genera have spp with fragrant leaves. It isn't a means of identifying any > particular species. There are different commercial varieties but the ones > I've seen in private collections usually top out at 3-4 ft. The > inflorescences do appear on basal shoots similar to most Zingiber spp as > was mentioned (though some Zingiber bloom terminally and a few basally and > terminally). > > To non collectors the species do seem similar so the confusion is > understandable, but worsened by sellers knowingly selling mislabeled plants > to those in search of the spice plant. > > Tim Chapman > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > -- terry frewin 661 upper boho road boho 3669 03 5790 8635 0429 908 635