Curcuma singularis Gagnep., a new record species from the Central Highlands (Gia Lai prov., KBang dist.) is described and illustrated with pictures, and compared to some species in the same group "Ecomata", together with a species with similar morphological characteristics from another group: Curcuma cochinchinensis. The species C. singularis is known by locals as Cay khoe or Sam da, and its rhizomes are used by in habitants to help them improve health. | VNU Journal of Science: Natural Sciences and Technology, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2017) 25-29 A new record Species for Flora of Vietnam - Curcuma singularis Gagnep. (Zingiberaceae) Nguyen Quoc Binh1,*, Hoang Anh Tuan1, Nguyen Van Dat1, Tran Thi Viet Thanh1, Nguyen Phuong Hanh2, Nguyen Manh Cuong3, Nguyen Trung Thanh4 1 Vietnam National Museum of Nature, VAST, Vietnam Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, VAST, Vietnam 3 Institute of Natural products Chemistry, VAST, Vietnam 4 Faculty of Biology, VNU University of Science, 334 Nguyen Trai, Hanoi, Vietnam 2 Received 16 December 2016 Revised 18 January 2017; Accepted 23 March 2017 Abstract: Curcuma singularis Gagnep., a new record species from the Central Highlands (Gia Lai prov., KBang dist.) is described and illustrated with pictures, and compared to some species in the same group "Ecomata", together with a species with similar morphological characteristics from another group: Curcuma cochinchinensis. The species C. singularis is known by locals as Cay khoe or Sam da, and its rhizomes are used by in habitants to help them improve health. Keywords: Curcuma arida, C. newmanii, C. sahuynhensis, C. stenochila, C. xanthella, C. cochinchinensis, Gia Lai, KBang. 1. Introduction prov.). This is a new record species for flora of Vietnam and updates the total number of Curcuma species in Vietnam to 28. In this article, we provide identifying characteristics, pictures, comparisons with related species, and the usage and potentials of Curcuma singularis. Curcuma L. is a rather large big genus in the Ginger family (Zingiberaceae), containing nearly 100 species with distribution in Southeast Asia, Southern China, India, New Guinea, Northern Australia and some species in tropical Africa, Central America. There were 17 species of Curcuma in the Indochina (Gagnep. 1908) [1], Pham Hoang Ho (1993, 2000) [2, 3] recorded 14 species of Curcuma in Vietnam. During a survey of the genus in the Central Highland of Vietnam, we .
