What are the varieties of ginger?

Ginger is part of a large group of flowering plants, with about 1,400 species. As a cooking ingredient, ginger is available in three types: white, black and Thai. You can buy ginger in a variety of forms: fresh, dried, pickled, preserved, candied or ground.

It has been cultivated for thousands of years as a spice and medicine. Besides the culinary and medicinal uses of ginger, it is also an interesting ornamental plant. Patterned foliage, deliciously perfumed flowers in a rainbow palette of colors and surprising seedpods make ginger plants noteworthy and seductive.