Plant girls on both sides of topless fellow (8)

I believe the answer is:

galangal

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'plant' is the definition.
(galangal is a kind of plant)

'girls on both sides of topless fellow' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'fellow' could be 'al' (man's name) and 'al' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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