Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or simply ginger, is widely used as a spice or a mild medicine.
It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual stems about a meter tall bearing narrow green leaves and yellow flowers. Ginger is in the family Zingiberaceae, which also include turmeric (Curcuma longa) and cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum). Ginger originated in the tropical rainforest in Southern Asia, and although ginger no longer grows wild, it is thought to have originated on the Indian subcontinent because the ginger plants grown in India show the largest amount of genetic variation. Ginger was used extensively by the Romans and exported to Europe from India in the first century AD as a result of the lucrative spice trade.