''Heliconia'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the 194 known species are native to the tropical

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the western

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

and Maluku in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. Many species of ''Heliconia'' are found in the

tropical forests Tropical forests are forested ecoregions with tropical climates – that is, land areas approximately bounded by the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical forest types ...

of these regions. Most species are listed as either vulnerable or data deficient by the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

of threatened species. Several species are widely cultivated as ornamentals, and a few are naturalized in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

, and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. Common names for the genus include lobster-claws, toucan beak, wild plantain, or false bird-of-paradise; the last term refers to their close similarity to the bird-of-paradise flowers in the ''Strelitzia'' genus. Collectively, these plants are also simply referred to as "heliconias". ''Heliconia'' originated in the

Late Eocene The Priabonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS's geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age or the upper stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Eocene epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans ...

(39 Ma) and are the oldest known clade of hummingbird-pollinated plants.

Description

These herbaceous plants range from 0.5 to nearly 4.5 m (1.5–15 ft) tall, depending on the species.

Leaves

The simple

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

of these plants are 15–300 cm (6 in–10 ft). They are characteristically long, oblong, alternate, or growing opposite one another on nonwoody petioles often longer than the leaf, often forming large clumps with age. The leaves in different positions on the plant have a different absorption potential of sunlight for photosynthesis when exposed to different degrees of sunlight. They also look like lobster claws.

Flower

Their

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are produced on long, erect or drooping

panicle In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...

s, and consist of brightly colored, waxy bracts, with small true flowers peeping out from the bracts. The growth habit of heliconias is similar to '' Canna'', ''Strelitzia'', and

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s, to which they are related. The flowers can be hues of reds, oranges, yellows, and greens, and are subtended by brightly colored bracts. The flowers' shape often limits pollination to a subset of the

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

s in the region. They also produce ample nectar that attract these birds.

Seeds

Fruits are blue-purple when ripe and primarily bird dispersed. Studies of post-dispersal seed survival showed that seed size was not a determinant. The highest amount of seed predation came from mammals.

Taxonomy

The generic name Heliconia was given by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1771 from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word ''Helikṓnios'' from ''Helikṓn'' after

Mount Helicon Mount Helicon (; ) is a mountain in the region of Thespiai in Boeotia, Greece, celebrated in Greek mythology. With an altitude of , it is located approximately from the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth. Some researchers maintain that Helicon ...

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia (; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Central Greece (adm ...

, central

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. ''Heliconia'' is the only genus in the monotypic

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Heliconiaceae ''Heliconia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the western Pacific and Maluku in Indonesi ...

, but was formerly included in the family

Musaceae Musaceae is a family of flowering plants composed of three genera with about 91 known species, placed in the order Zingiberales. The family is native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. The plants have a large herbaceous growth habit with leaves w ...

, which includes the bananas (e.g. '' Musa'', ''Ensete'' and so on). However, the

APG system The APG system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system) of plant classification is the first version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy. Published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it was replaced by the improved ...

of 1998, and its successor, the

APG II system The APG II system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system) of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly Molecular phylogenetics, molecular-based, list of systems of plant taxonomy, system of plant taxonomy that ...

of 2003, confirm the Heliconiaceae as distinct and places them in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Zingiberales The Zingiberales are flowering plants forming one of four orders in the commelinids clade of monocots, together with its sister order, Commelinales. The order includes 68 genera and 2,600 species. Zingiberales are a unique though morpholog ...

, in the

commelinid In plant taxonomy, commelinids (originally commelinoids) is a clade of flowering plants within the monocots, distinguished by having cell walls containing ferulic acid. Well-known commelinids include palms and relatives (order Arecales), day ...

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

monocots Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks a ...

Species

Species accepted by Kew Botanic Gardens

Distribution and habitat

Most of the 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the western Pacific and Maluku. Many species of ''Heliconia'' are found in the

of these regions. Several species are widely cultivated as ornamentals, and a few are naturalized in

and

Ecology

Heliconias are an important food source for forest

s, especially the

hermits A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

(Phathornithinae), some of which – such as the rufous-breasted hermit (''Glaucis hirsuta'') – also use the plant for nesting. The Honduran white bat (''Ectophylla alba'') also lives in tents it makes from heliconia leaves.

Bats

Pollination

Although ''Heliconia'' are almost exclusively pollinated by hummingbirds, some bat pollination has been found to occur. ''Heliconia solomonensis'' is pollinated by the macroglosine bat (''Melonycteris woodfordi'') in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

. ''Heliconia solomonensis'' has green inflorescences and flowers that open at night, which is typical of bat pollinated plants. The macroglosine bat is the only known nocturnal pollinator of ''Heliconia solomonensis''.

Habitat

Many bats use Heliconia leaves for shelter. The Honduran white bat, ''Ectohylla alba'', utilizes five species of ''Heliconia'' to make diurnal tent-shaped roosts. The bat cuts the side veins of the leaf extending from the midrib, causing the leaf to fold like a tent. This structure provides the bat with shelter from rain, sun, and predators. In addition, the stems of the ''Heliconia'' leaves are not strong enough to carry the weight of typical bat predators, so shaking of the leaf alerts roosting bats to presence of predators. The bats ''Artibeus anderseni'' and ''A. phaeotis'' form tents from the leaves of ''Heliconia'' in the same manner as the Honduran white bat. The neotropical disk-winged bat, ''Thyroptera tricolor'', has suction disks on the wrists which allow it to cling to the smooth surfaces of the ''Heliconia'' leaves. This bat roosts head-up in the rolled young leaves of Heliconia plants.

Insects

Heliconias provide shelter for a diverse range of insects within their young rolled leaves and water-filled floral bracts. Insects that inhabit the rolled leaves often feed upon the inner surfaces of the leaf, such as beetles of the family

Chrysomelidae The beetle family Chrysomelidae, commonly known as leaf beetles, includes over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making it one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle families. Numerous s ...

. In bracts containing small amounts of water, fly larvae and beetles are the dominant inhabitants. In bracts with greater quantities of water the typical inhabitants are mosquito larva. Insects living in the bracts often feed on the bract tissue, nectar of the flower, flower parts, other insects, microorganisms, or detritus in the water contained in the bract (Siefert 1982). Almost all species of Hispini beetles that use rolled leaves are obligate herbivores of plants of the order of

, which includes ''Heliconia''. These beetles live in and feed from the rolled leaf, the stems, the inflorescences, or the unfurled mature leaves of the ''Heliconia'' plant. In addition, these beetles deposit their eggs on the leaf surface, petioles of immature leaves, or in the bracts of the ''Heliconia''. Furthermore, some wasp species such as ''

Polistes erythrocephalus ''Polistes erythrocephalus'' is a species of paper wasp in the subfamily Polistinae of family Vespidae found in Central and South America. ''P. erythrocephalus'' is a eusocial wasp, meaning that it possesses both reproductive and non-reproductive ...

'' build their nest on the protected underside of large leaves.

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are the main pollinators of heliconia flowers in many locations. The concurrent diversification of hummingbird-pollinated taxa in the order Zingiberales and the hummingbird family (

Trochilidae Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

: Phaethorninae) starting 18 million years ago supports the idea that these radiations have influenced one another through evolutionary time. At La Selva Research Station in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

, specific species of ''Heliconia'' were found to have specific hummingbird pollinators. These hummingbirds can be organized into two different groups: hermits and non-hermits. Hermits are the subfamily Phaethornithinae, consisting of the genera '' Anopetia, Eutoxeres, Glaucis,

Phaethornis '' Phaethornis '' is a genus of hummingbirds in the hermit (hummingbird), hermit subfamily, Phaethornithinae. They occur from southern Mexico, through Central America, to South America as far south as northern Argentina. Description and ecology ...

, Ramphodon,'' and '' Threnetes''. Non-hermits are a catch-all group of other hummingbirds that often visit heliconias, comprising several

clades In biology, a clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy ...

(McGuire 2008). Hermits are generally traplining foragers; that is, individuals visit a repeated circuit of high-reward flowers instead of holding fixed territories Non-hermits are territorial over their ''Heliconia'' clumps, causing greater self-pollination. Hermits tend to have long curved bills while non-hermits tend to possess short straight bills, a morphological difference that likely spurred the divergence of these groups in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

era. Characteristics of ''Heliconia'' flowers that select for either hermit or non-hermit pollinator specificity are degree of self-compatibility, flowering

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

, nectar production, color, and shape of flower. The hummingbird itself will choose the plants its feeds from on the basis of its beak shape, its perch on the plant, and its territory choice. Hummingbird visits to the ''Heliconia'' flower do not affect its production of nectar. This may account for the flowers not having a consistent amount of nectar produced from flower to flower. Different ''Heliconia'' species have different flowering seasons. This suggests that the species compete for pollinators. Many species of ''Heliconia'', even the newly colonized species, are visited by many different pollinators.

Cultivation

Several

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s and hybrids have been selected for garden planting, including: * ''H. psittacorum'' × ''H. spathocircinata'', both species of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, mainly

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

* ''H. × rauliniana'' = ''H. marginata'' (

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

) × ''H. bihai'' (

) * ''H. chartacea'' cv. 'Sexy Pink' Most commonly grown landscape ''Heliconia'' species include ''H. augusta, H. bihai, H. brasiliensis, H. caribaea, H. latispatha, H. pendula, H. psittacorum, H. rostrata, H. schiediana, ''and'' H. wagneriana''.

Uses

Heliconias are grown for the florist's trade and as landscape plants. These plants do not grow well in cold, dry conditions. They are very drought intolerant, but can endure some soil flooding. Heliconias need an abundance of water, sunlight, and soils that are rich in humus in order to grow well. These flowers are grown in tropical regions all over the world as ornamental plants. The flower of '' H. psittacorum'' ( parrot heliconia) is especially distinctive, its greenish-yellow flowers with black spots and red

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s reminiscent of the bright

plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...

parrot Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...

Gallery

File:Heliconia rostrata 4.jpg, ''

Heliconia rostrata ''Heliconia rostrata'', the hanging lobster claw or false bird of paradise, is a herbaceous perennial plant native to El Salvador, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, and naturalized in Puerto Rico. It is found in tropica ...

'' in a botanical garden,

File:Heliconia wagneriana in Florida.jpg, '' Heliconia wagneriana'' in

File:Heliconia sp by Wilder.JPG, ''Heliconia'' sp. in tropical rain forest at Sierra del Escambray,

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

File:Heliconia sp2 by Wilder.JPG, ''Heliconia'' sp. in tropical rain forest at Sierra del Escambray, Cuba File:Heliconia by Averthanath Babu.jpg, ''Heliconia psittacorum'' in Lagos, Nigeria File:Starr 070906-8370 Heliconia stricta.jpg, ''Heliconia stricta'' (Dwarf Jamaican) leaf at a nursery on

Maui Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of ...

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

''Monocot families'' (USDA)

links at CSDL

Heliconia observations at iNaturalist
{{Authority control Zingiberales genera Garden plants of Australasia Garden plants of North America Garden plants of South America