Zingiber fragile

Due to agricultural exploitation over the last 30 years, primary forests in the area have been greatly changed. Some have been denuded and some converted into farmlands for rubber plantations or other tropical cash crops, or for shifting cultivation. As a result, secondary vegetation consisting of deciduous monsoon forest, savanna woodland, bamboo Dendrocalamus membranaceus forest and grassland has developed on the abandoned lands on a large scale. The ability of the taxon to persist and regenerate in disturbed and secondary vegetation is unknown. Gingers have enjoyed popularity as ornamental plants in Asia and the Far East for centuries. Ornamental gingers have rapidly increased in popularity in the past few years, in the Western world (West Demmy and Burch 1998), which has promoted an increase in illegal collecting (Larsen 2003). Many Zingiber species have high ornamental potential. This taxon may be considered for horticultural trade. Several Zingiber species are used in medicine and as food and spices. There is no reported ethnobotanical use of this recently described species.

This species is reported to occur within the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve (2,418 km²), a complex of several smaller reserves which is also a Unesco-Mab biosphere Reseve, which is one of the largest and most comprehensive biodiversity rich tropical forests in China. The taxon is also recorded from Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden. Surveys and censuses should to be conducted in south Yunnan, Northern Thailand and bordering Lao PDR and Myanmar to determine the current range and population size of this species. The biology and ecology of the taxon should be studied. Seeds should be collected for germplasm conservation.