Plant 52r

[-JKP-]

The leaves if 52r are completely wrong for ginger. And the flower is different, as well. Even the rhizome is wrong for ginger:

• Ginger leaves are moderately slender and plain. They are never vaguely handlike with fingers.
  

• Ginger root is yellowish (not a deep red) and most people drew it yellowish brown or brownish. Red pigment was more expensive than the others. Why use a lot of heavily-laid-on red (the VMS root is red mixed with brown, but it still has a lot of red in it) for a yellowish root? The VMS red is obviously deliberate since the ends are conspicuously light.
  
• Ginger was readily dried, so it came in from the east earlier than many other trade-route plants because it was  easier to transport without spoiling. In the Middle Ages they called it Zinziber or Synsiber.
  

• Ginger flowers are on a separate stalk. They look a bit like a garden torch coming out of the ground. The flower is usually shades of red or pink. The VMS flower is at the top of a leaf stalk rather than on a separate stalk, and it is light blue.
  

• The VMS illustrator drew accurate Nymphoides, accurate Ricinus, Tragopogon, Viola, and Phu. Why would he or she draw ginger so completely wrong, a plant that was familiar, a plant that most illustrators got right?
  

Many plants grow from rhizomes. This could be a thousand other species with a rhizome. The only part of the VMS plant that looks even vaguely like ginger is the fact that it has a rhizome and it doesn't look very much like a ginger rhizome because ginger is notable for having pale brown or yellowish roots with soft rounded edges, not sharp red ones with white porous ends like the VMS plant.

Here are some medieval and early modern ginger drawings. Note the thin plain leaves and the color and soft edges of the rhizomes: