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| Cardamom (Elettaria Cardamomum Maton) is a monocotyledonous member of zingiberaceae (ginger) family of the natural order Scitaminae. There are eight species in the genus Elettaria as listed below. |
| Botanical Name (synonyms) | Common English Name | Area of cultivation | Appearance and colour (a) dried fruit, (b) seeds |
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| Afromonum angustifolium(Sonnerat) K. Schum(=Aframomum danielii (Hook) K.Schum | Madagascar cardamom | Madagascar,
Zanzibar,
PembaSeychelles | a) <50mm long; oval, brown with longitudinal furrows,b) 3mm, oval, olive brown, shiny |
| Afromomum Hanburyi (Roscoe) K.Schum(=Amomum clussi)Hanb / Smith | Cameroon cardamom | Cameroon | a) 50mm long, oval brown with longitudinal furrows,b) 3mm, oval, olive brown, shiny |
| Afromomum Melegueta(Roscoe) K.Schum(=Aframomum melegueta Roscoe) | Melegueta pepper / grains of paradise | Gulf of Guinea,
Ghana, Liberia,
Congo, Coastal tropical,
West Africa | a) 70mm long x 40mm thick; pear shaped dark brown, smooth; b) 4mm x 2-3min; reddish brown, hard, shiny |
| Amomum aromaticum Roxb (=Amomum subulatum Roxb) | Bengal cardamom (Nepal cardamom?) | Bengal, Nepal, Sikkim | a) 25mm long; oval to round, greyish brown (b) 3mm black brown, round , smooth surface |
| Amomum kepulaga Sprague et Burkill (=Amomum cardamomum Linn) | Suan cardanin/ round or cluster cardamom | Cambedia, Java, China | a) 15mm dia; striped, straw yellow to lemon, (b) Nonuniform; ca 3.mm |
| Amomum krevanh Pierre et Gagnepain | Cambodian cardamom | Cambedia | a) -- (b) -- |
| Amomum Subulatum Roxb (=Amomum aromaticum Roxb)? | Nepal or greater Indian cardamom (Bengal cardamom?) | Nepal, Bengal, Sikkim | a) 30mm; long, oval, dark brown (b) 3mm, grey brown, smooth surface |
| Elettaria Cardamomum (Linn) Maton var miniscula Burkill | Cardamom, true or small | Kerala,
Karnataka and Tamilnadu
(in India) Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Tanzania | a) 10 to 15mm long, oval green, yellow green, ribbed b) 3mm brownish black, furrowed surface |
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 | Etymology of Elettaria Cardamomum Maton
The generic epithet elettaria is derived from two Malayalam words: elam and thari. Elam stands for cardamom and thari means granules. It was used first in Rheed's 'Elettari' and later used by Maton in 1811. |
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| Morphology |
 Cardamom is a perennial herbaceous plant rising to a height of 5 mtrs with subterranean, rhizomatous stem and pseudo stem made of leaf sheaths. It has a shallow fibrous root system. Flowers are 4-5 cm long, 2 cm across, zygomorphic, bi-sexual and self-fertile. Leaves are distichous, petiolate, linear and lanceolate.
Inflorescence, which is a long panicle, arises directly from the base of the pseudo stem.
Panicles are usually 2-4 per tiller and flowers bloom sequentially from base to tip. Each flower is large and attractive and exhibits characteristics required for entomophilies pollination, and consists of tubular calyx with three pale green petals. |
| Androecium has five stamens: one is fertile, two are modified into labella and two form staminodia. The filiform style protrudes through the groove between the lobes. The surface of the stigma is sticky, ciliated and funnel shaped. Fruits are small trilocular, small and many-seeded capsules. These are pale green to deep green in colour. Mature seeds are hard, brownish black and covered with thin mucilaginous aril inside the fruit wall. |
| The flowers are often cross-pollinated, but self-pollination is also common. Though the flowers remain open for 13-14 hours, the stigma receptivity is high only during morning hours. |
| Cytology |
| Cytologically, cardamom is classified as a balanced tetraploid with 2n = 48 and basic chromosome number x = 12. |
| Pollination |
| Pollination is of entomophilous type as cardamom flower is bisexual. Cross-pollination is accomplished by adaptations like the attractiveness of petals, structure of the flower and the production of nectar in the epigynous glands. |
 | The chief pollinators, contributing to over 90% pollination are two species of honeybees viz. Apis cerana Indica and Apis dorsata. Ants, thrips etc also contribute to pollination. Installation of 3-4 bee colonies per hectare ensures effective and speedy pollination. |
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| Ecology |
| Cardamom is grown at altitudes between 700 and 1400m on the Western Ghats in South India, where annual rainfall of 3000 - 4000mm and a temperature range of 10 - 35°C is prevalent. The South West monsoon gives rain from June to September and North East monsoon continues up to December. The cardamom hills of Central and Northern Travancore is lie between latitudes 10 and 11°N. Strong wind is detrimental to cardamom cultivation and an eastern a southeastern slope is preferred. Evergreen forestlands are most suitable for this crop. It is the vegetative cover more than the mineral content that enriches the soil. |
| The roots quickly spread over the chocolate - coloured forest loam just below the humus layer. The crop is best where the soil receives minimum disturbance with good mulch and adequate water supply. Water logging can play havoc on the crop. |
| The flavour and medicinal properties of cardamom undergo changes with the change of location of cultivation as the climatic and soil conditions are the deciding factors in the formation of such qualities. |
| Experiments have proved beyond doubt that spices and medicinal herbs undergo change in quality with the change in the location of cultivation. This is the greatest stumbling block faced by the standardisation process, now going on in Ayurvedic Medicines. For centuries, the flavour of cardamom produced in the Western Ghats has been acclaimed as the very best in the world. Hence cardamom from no other place in the world can compete with Alleppey Green Extra Bold (AGEB) in quality. |
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