A clump-forming tropical perennial whose long pendant or upright bracts in lobster-claw shapes are the showpiece flowers of Central American rainforests.
Where it grows
The genus Heliconia includes around two hundred species across the lowland tropical Americas, with a smaller secondary centre in the South Pacific. They favour the edges of rainforests, riverbanks, and clearings where light reaches the canopy floor, and they’re a defining flower of Costa Rican and Colombian wet forest.
How to recognise it
A clump of upright, paddle-shaped, banana-like leaves rises one to four metres from rhizomes. From the centre of mature shoots emerges either an upright spike (H. psittacorum) or a pendulous chain (H. rostrata) of bright, waxy boat-shaped bracts. Tiny tubular flowers sit inside each bract and are usually invisible.
Garden & cultural uses
Heliconias are pollinated almost exclusively by hummingbirds; the bracts hold rain water that catches mites and protects pollen. Cut stems are central to tropical floral arrangements and ship reliably from growers in Costa Rica, Hawaii, and Thailand. They need year-round temperatures above 13 degrees Celsius.
In etymology
The genus is named for Mount Helicon, sacred to the Muses in Greek mythology — a literary nod from Linnaeus to a plant otherwise entirely unknown to ancient Europe.
Find more flowers by letter
Heliconia starts with H and ends with A. Browse other flowers along the same letter.
Flowers that contain a letter from "Heliconia":