Today's Flowers: Spiral Ginger

This weeks flower is not a native of Minnesota. This is spiral ginger. It is named for the spiral shape that the leaves take near the flower. The 6 lighter cylinders are actually the flowers of the plant however right now it is not in bloom.
These plants are native to the tropic areas of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. This particular variation is from South America however I took the picture at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory which is a part of the Como Zoo in St Paul, MN.