Costus spicatus, also known as Spiked Spirlaflag Ginger or Indian Head Ginger, is a species of herbaceous plant

Herbaceous plant

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 in the Costaceae

Costaceae

Costaceae or the Costus Family is a family of pantropical monocots. They belong to the order Zingiberales, which contains other horticulturally and economically important plants such as the banana , bird-of-paradise , and edible ginger...

 family (also sometimes placed in Zingiberaceae

Zingiberaceae

Zingiberaceae, or the Ginger family, is a family of flowering plants consisting of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes, comprising ca. 52 genera and more than 1300 species, distributed throughout tropical Africa, Asia, and the Americas.Many species are important...

).

Distribution

C. spicatus is native to South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 and the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

, (including Dominica

Dominica

Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...

, Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

, Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...

, Martinique

Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

, and Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

).

Description

C. spicatus leaves grow to a length of approximately 1 foot and a width of approximately 4 inches. It produces a short red cone, from which red-orange flowers emerge one at a time.

Cultivation

C. spicatus will grow in full sun if it is kept moist. It reaches a maximum height of about 6 to 7 feet.

Ecology

C. spicatus can develop a symbiotic

Symbiosis

Symbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...

 partnership with certain species of ants (often only a single species of ant will be compatible). The ants are provided with a food source (nectar in C. spicatus flowers) as well as a place to construct a nest. In turn, the ants protect developing seeds from herbivorous insects.

Medicinal use

In Dominican folk medicine, herbal tea made from the leaves of C. spicatus is used to treat diabetes (hyperglycemia

Hyperglycemia

Hyperglycemia or Hyperglycæmia, or high blood sugar, is a condition in which an excessive amount of glucose circulates in the blood plasma. This is generally a glucose level higher than 13.5mmol/l , but symptoms may not start to become noticeable until even higher values such as 15-20 mmol/l...

). However, a 2009 study concluded that this treatment "...had no efficacy in the treatment of obesity-induced hyperglycemia."