Ginger is a tuber which is consumed whole as a delicacy, medicine or used as spice for cooking or tea. It is the underground stem of the ginger plant, Zingiber officinale. Besides its genus, the plant family to which it belongs--Zingiberaceae--was also named after ginger. Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom and galangal.
The ginger plant has a long history of cultivation, having originated in Asia and is grown in India, Southeast Asia, West Africa and the Caribbean. It is sometimes called "root ginger" to distinguish it from other things that share the name "ginger".
