White Ginger Lily

Hedychium coronarium, the white garland-lily or white ginger lily, is a perennial flowering plant of the ginger family, native to the forest understorey of Asia. It is an upright perennial one to three metres tall with long pointed leaves and heavily scented white flowers with yellow bases, which in its native range appear between August and December. It is native from the eastern Himalayas of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan through northern Myanmar and Thailand to southern China and Taiwan. Beyond that range it may be invasive in shallow water and waterlogged ground, and is hard to control because its rhizomes spread underground. The page says the flower buds and young flowers are edible, and the rhizomes yield essential oils. It is regarded as sacred by the Tripuri people, who call it khumpui, and is the national flower of Cuba, where it is called mariposa.