Siphonochilus aethiopicus(Schweinf.) B.L.Burtt

WFO wfo-0000553574 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Siphonochilus aethiopicus, photographed by Chiara
fig. a Chiara, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-07-12 / obs. 144105151
Siphonochilus aethiopicus, photographed by Chiara
fig. b Chiara, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 144104838
Siphonochilus aethiopicus, photographed by Sara L Giles
fig. c Sara L Giles, CC0 1.0 / obs. 8701782
Siphonochilus aethiopicus, photographed by Chiara
fig. d Chiara, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 144105480

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 30 botanical countries

Regions where Siphonochilus aethiopicus is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBurkinaCameroonCentral African RepublicChadDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMaliMozambiqueNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Siphonochilus aethiopicus, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mozambique MOZ
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

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.

Flowering 42 in flower of 43 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Siphonochilus aethiopicus observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 42 of 43 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 13 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.

  • Cienkowskia aethiopica Schweinf.
  • Cienkowskiella aethiopica (Schweinf.) Y.K.Kam
  • Cienkowskiella evae (Briq.) Y.K.Kam
  • Kaempferia aethiopica Ridl.
  • Kaempferia aethiopica Benth.
  • Kaempferia aethiopica var. angustifolia Ridl.
  • Kaempferia dewevrei De Wild. & T.Durand
  • Kaempferia ethelae J.M.Wood
  • Kaempferia evae Briq.
  • Kaempferia natalensis Schltr. & K.Schum. ex K.Schum.
  • Kaempferia zambeziaca Gagnep.
  • Siphonochilus evae (Briq.) B.L.Burtt
  • Siphonochilus natalensis (Schltr. & K.Schum. ex K.Schum.) J.M.Wood & Franks

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.