Bean common mosaic virus is a species of the genus Potyvirus in the family Potyviridae. Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) is transmitted mechanically and in a nonpersistent manner by several species of aphids. Flowering ginger (Alpinia purpurata) is an important ornamental crop in Hawaii that has been previously shown to harbor single and mixed infections by the potyvirus banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV)(Wang et al. 2010) and the badnavirus canna yellow mottle virus (CaYMV)(Zhang et al. 2017). In March 2019, flowering ginger plants with virus-like symptoms distinct from the mosaic and streaking symptoms produced by dual infections of BBrMV and CaYMV were observed on Oahu, Hawaii. The symptoms included green mosaic patterns along leaf veins, stunted growth, and chlorosis. Leaf samples from two symptomatic A. purpurata plants were collected, and total nucleic acids were extracted for testing by PCR. Using genus-degenerate primers, the samples were assayed for the presence of potyviral and badnaviral infection (Yang et al. 2003; Zheng et al. 2008). After using specific primer sets, all symptomatic samples were found to be infected by CaYMV, but BBrMV was not detected. Direct Sanger sequencing and analysis of the resultant PCR products from the two samples using the potyviral primers indicated the presence of BCMV. A BLASTn search showed that the consensus potyviral sequence (MN073501) shared 97% identity to the BCMV clone zz1 (KM878928), infecting sesame (Sesamum indicum) in China. Interestingly, the new BCMV strain in A. purpurata shared only 93.8% identity to BCMV strain A1 (MK282414), a new strain of BCMV characterized previously from lima bean in Hawaii (Feng et al. 2019). To further detect BCMV infection, a BCMV-specific primer set (BCMV-CIg-F, 5′-AGCTCGCCACATAAACAAGC-3′; and BCMV-CIg-R, 5′-CTCAGAATGCGCGGRTTGAGC-3′) was designed to target sequences of the cylindrical inclusion (CI) protein. The expected 376-bp PCR products were obtained from the two plants, and the resulting consensus sequence (MN043985) had a high similarity to the corresponding CI protein gene from a BCMV isolate of S. indicum (MK282414) from China. Their identities at the nucleotide and amino acid levels were 96.56 and 95.28%, respectively. Subsequently, the samples also tested positive using a potyvirus genus-specific ELISA and a BCMV-specific ELISA following the manufacturer’s directions (Agdia, Elkhart, IN). In May 2019, four additional symptomatic samples were collected from the same location. The previous BCMV primer-specific set was used in reverse transcription PCR to verify infection by BCMV based on the amplification of PCR fragments of the expected size. The results of these assays further confirmed the presence of BCMV in flowering ginger. To our knowledge, this is the first report of BCMV naturally infecting this important ornamental plant in Hawaii. It is unclear if its presence is contributing to the current severe dieback disease of flowering ginger in Hawaii (Green et al. 2018). Additional research is needed to determine the cause and its threat to the ginger industry in Hawaii.