Abstract:The history of studies on Zingiberaceae is briefly introduced. The classification system, proposed by B. L. Bunt (1972) is adopted. Some morphologic characters of the organs with evolutionary significance, such as rhizome, inflorescence, bracteole, staminoides, etc. are discussed. The Zingiberaceae is a pantropic family, devided into 2 subfamilies and 4 tribes, comprising 52 genera, about 1377 species. The subfamily Zingiberoideae with 48 genera 1268 species, has its greatest concentration in Indo-Malaysian area, while subfamily Costoideae comprising 4 genera 109 species, is manily distributed in tropical America and Africa. Six distribution maps of Zingiberaceae and statistics of genera in the floristic restons of the world and China are presented. Based on the evidence of fossil records and the present distribution, the origin and the formation of recent distributional Patterns of this family tvers probed. Fossil Zingiberaceae has been recorded in stratum of late Cretaceous and early Tertiary from Europe, North America and India. "The family was probably common to very early Laurasia and West Gondwanaland" (Raven &. Axelred, 1974). After the Tertiary,when the climate of Europe and North America became cooler, the Zingiberaceae gradually disappeared, but in Southeast Asia, which was less influenced by glacjation, the Zingiberaceae continuously developed. So Southeast Asia became the centre of preasent distribution and species diversity. In Australia there is no endemic genus but there are 7 genera in common with Asia, belonging to Indo-Malaysia element.These genera probably entered north Australia through Malaysia. There are 6 genera and 115 species in Tropical Africa, only 4 genera 120 species in South Americ; Costoideae is well developed in these areas.
