During a recent revision of the genus Alpinia Roxb. of the family Zingiberaceae in Sri Lanka, we came to notice a set of ambiguous morphological descriptions on Alpinia fax Burtt and Smith. This is particularly pertaining to few earlier collections and especially to the description of the species discovered from India recently. In this short note, we address ambiguity of these morphological characteristics which do not add up with the accepted revision on the species, also giving reference to the currently accepted description, our field collections and the Indian species.