A low-growing perennial herb in the ginger family with an underground rhizome, found in Nigeria and Ghana and related to the better-known African ginger, Siphonochilus aethiopicus.
Siphonochilus nigericus (family Zingiberaceae, the ginger family), first described as Kaempferia nigerica, is a herb with tuberous roots. Its flowers appear before its leaves, and in English it has been called the resurrection lily. Its tuber is aromatic and is used for flavouring, in sauces and as a spice.
The Flora of West Tropical Africa records it in Ghana, from Tamale to Ejura, Kete-Krachi and Dutukpene, flowering from March to April. In Nigeria it was collected at Birnin Gwari, Zungeru, Lokoja, Afikpo, between Ileshe and Benin, and at Lagos. The botanist John Dalziel collected it in June at Abinsi, on the Benue River in Tiv country. Other West African names are recorded for it: yotambu in Baatonum (Benin), funugbena in Mandinka (Sierra Leone), and taptarbo in the Gambia.
Sources: PROTA4U database (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa), which compiles records from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève, FAO EcoCrop and other botanical databases.
Like other Siphonochilus gingers, produces new leafy shoots and flowers from an underground rhizome, typically after the first rains.