Elettaria pods are light green while Amomum pods are larger and dark brown.
There were initially three natural varieties of green cardamom plants.
Malabar: this is the native variety of Kerala.
These plants have panicles which grow horizontally along the ground.
Mysore: this is a native variety of Karnataka.
These plants have panicles which grow vertically upwards.
Vazhuka: this is a naturally occurring hybrid between Malabar and Mysore varieties, and the panicles grow neither vertically nor horizontally, but in between.
Green and black cardamom are used as flavorings in both food and drink, as cooking spices and as a medicine.
Elettaria cardamomum - the usual type of cardamom- is used as a spice, a masticatory, and in medicine.
Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic, resinous fragrance. Black cardamom has a distinctly more smoky, though not bitter, aroma with a coolness some consider similar to mint.
It is a common ingredient in Indian cooking, and is often used in baking in Nordic countries, such as in the Finnish sweet bread pulla or in the Scandinavian bread Julekake.
Green cardamom is one of the most expensive spices by weight, but little is needed to impart the flavor.
Cardamom is best stored in pod form because once the seeds are exposed or ground they quickly lose their flavor.
In the Middle East, green cardamom powder is used as a spice for sweet dishes as well as traditional flavouring in coffee and tea.
Cardamom pods are ground together with coffee beans to produce a powdered mixture of the two, which is boiled with water to make coffee.
Cardamom is also used in some extent in savoury dishes.
Green cardamom is used in South Asia to treat infections in teeth and gums, to prevent and treat throat troubles, congestion of the lungs and pulmonary tuberculosis, inflammation of eyelids and also digestive disorders.
It also is used to break up kidney stones and gall stones, and was reportedly used as an antidote for both snake and scorpion venom.
Amomum is used as a spice and as an ingredient in traditional medicine in systems of the traditional Chinese medicine in China, in Ayurveda in India, Pakistan, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
Species in the genus Amomum are also used in traditional Indian medicine.
Among other species, varieties and cultivars, Amomum villosum cultivated in China, Laos and Vietnam is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat stomach-aches, constipation, dysentery, and other digestion problems.