Family: Zingiberaceae

High Risk Traits:

• Naturalized in Hawaii, Paraguay, and Philippines
  
• Agricultural and environmental weed (forms dense thickets, overwhelms low-growing plants)
  
• Congeneric weed (H. gardnerianum is a major invader)
  
• Shade tolerant
  
• Tolerates wide range of soil conditions
  
• Reproduces by vegetative fragmentation (rhizomes)
  
• Dispersed unintentionally by machinery and intentionally by people
  
• Tolerates mutilation and fire (recovers from rhizomes)

Low Risk Traits:

• No spines, thorns, or burrs
  
• Not allelopathic or parasitic
  
• Not toxic to animals or humans
  
• Not a fire hazard (succulent, low flammability)
  
• Requires specialist pollinators; seeds rarely formed in cultivation
  
• No prolific seed production; seeds not wind- or bird-dispersed
  
• No persistent seed bank reported
  
• Well-controlled by herbicides