The group of spices I'm calling the cardamoms are all the seed pods and seeds of various ginger (Zingiberaceae) species. Currently they come from 4 Genera- Aframomum, Alpinia, Amomum, and Elettaria. Together these Genera have over 20 spices that are variously called (something)cardamom in English. 

===Aframomum===
grains of paradise, Cameroon cardamom, Ethiopian cardamom, malinga pepper 

===Alpinia===
Alpinia is a genus that has the spices Galangal and Lesser Galangal. Those spices are made from the rhizomes, but there is also at least one example of a spice made from seed pods. Elegantly called Violet Cardamom, Alpinia katsumadai is currently the only cardamom type spice from the genus Alpinia. 

===Amomum===
Of all of the cardamoms the genus Amomum offers the most interesting set of spices. This are more then 7 species that offer unusual spices, including Chinese Black Cardamom, Indian Black cardamom, and White Cardamom. There are also several members that lack proper English names, I can pull from the Chinese characters used to derive some simple names such as long cardamom, ridged cardamom, mulberry cardamom, and scaly cardamom 


===Elettaria===
We return to a genera with one primary species, and this one is the most well known of the whole group and that is Green Cardamom. 