Costus comosus(Jacq.) Roscoe

WFO wfo-0000362918 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Costus comosus, photographed by Thomas Mesaglio
fig. a Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-11 / obs. 175586594
Costus comosus, photographed by Henggang Cui
fig. b Henggang Cui, CC0 1.0 / obs. 61602835
Costus comosus, photographed by Aitor
fig. c Aitor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 37180406
Costus comosus, photographed by Francisco Emilio Roldán Velasco
fig. d Francisco Emilio Roldán Velasco, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 88310825
Costus comosus, photographed by Jonathan Eisen
fig. e Jonathan Eisen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 38686827
Costus comosus, photographed by Zoltán Stekkelpak
fig. f Zoltán Stekkelpak, CC0 1.0 / obs. 42760763
Costus comosus, photographed by Robert Webster
fig. g Robert Webster, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 62180205
Costus comosus, photographed by Curtis Hansen
fig. h Curtis Hansen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115475059

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 10 botanical countries

Regions where Costus comosus is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panamá, Venezuela Mexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaPanamáVenezuela
Native distribution of Costus comosus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Colombia CLM SOUTHERN AMERICA
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Panamá PAN
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 293 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.2 °C 19.8 °C 22.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.4 °C 25.8 °C 29.5 °C
Annual rainfall 1,040 mm 2,335 mm 4,611 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 94 mm 420 mm 943 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 293 research-grade observations of Costus comosus that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 3 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Alpinia comosa Jacq.
  • Costus bakeri K.Schum.
  • Costus maritimus Standl. & L.O.Williams

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.