Elettaria

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title: "Elettaria" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["alpinioideae", "zingiberaceae-genera", "medicinal-plants-of-asia", "indian-spices", "flora-of-the-indian-subcontinent"] description: "Genus of plants" topic_path: "geography/india" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elettaria" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of plants ::

|image = Elettaria_cardamomum_-_Köhler–s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-057.jpg |image_caption = True Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) 1896 illustration |image2 = Cardamom pods - Green BNC.jpg |display_parents = 2 |taxon = Elettaria |authority = Maton, 1811 |synonyms =

• Cardamomum Noronha
• Matonia Stephenson & J.M.Churchill |synonyms_ref =

Elettaria is a genus of flowering plants in the family Zingiberaceae. They are native to India and Sri Lanka, but cultivated and naturalized elsewhere. One member of the genus, E. cardamomum, known as green cardamom or true cardamom, is a commercially important spice used as a flavouring agent in many countries.

In 2018, several species were removed from Elettaria and placed in a new genus called Sulettaria. These species are recognized as of October 2018: A phylogenetic analysis published in 2024 found that Elettaria was a well-defined clade of seven species native to India and Sri Lanka, which is sister to the African genus Aframomum and the African and Neotropical genus Renealmia, and distinct from the Sri Lankan genera Cyphostigma and Srilankanthus.

Species

Seven species are accepted.

• Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton - India
• Elettaria ensal (Gaertn.) Abeyw. - Sri Lanka
• Elettaria facifera M.Sabu & Škorničk.
• Elettaria floribunda Thwaites
• Elettaria involucrata Thwaites
• Elettaria rufescens Thwaites
• Elettaria tulipifera M.Sabu & Škorničk.

Formerly placed here

These former species from Malaysia and Indonesia were reclassified into Sulettaria in 2018:

• Elettaria brachycalyx S.Sakai & Nagam. - Sarawak
• Elettaria kapitensis S.Sakai & Nagam. - Sarawak
• Elettaria linearicrista S.Sakai & Nagam. - Sarawak, Brunei
• Elettaria longipilosa S.Sakai & Nagam. - Sarawak
• Elettaria longituba (Ridl.) Holttum - Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia
• Eulettaria multiflora (Ridl.) R.M.Sm. - Sumatra, Sarawak
• Elettaria rubida R.M.Sm. - Sabah, Sarawak
• Elettaria stoloniflora (K.Schum.) S.Sakai & Nagam. - Sarawak
• Elettaria surculosa (K.Schum.) B.L.Burtt & R.M.Sm. - Sarawak Elettaria nemoralis is now accepted as Srilankanthus nemoralis, the sole species in genus Srilankanthus.

References

• University of Melbourne: Sorting Elettaria names

References

1. Elettaria cardamomum - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen - Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
2. [http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=243049 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]
3. Poulsen, A.D., Fér, T., Marasinghe, L.D.K., Sabu, M., Hughes, M., Valderrama, E. and Leong-Škorničková, J. (2024), The cardamom conundrum resolved: Recircumscription and placement of ''Elettaria'' in the only pantropically distributed ginger lineage. ''Taxon'', 73: 1187-1213. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.13242
4. "''Elettaria'' Maton". [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]].
5. (2018-08-01). "Sulettaria : A new ginger genus disjunct from Elettaria cardamomum". Taxon.

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