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1321.000 Heliconia
Bailey, L.H. (1949) Manual of Cultivated Plants Revised edition. Macmillan, New York.
Fayaz, F. (2011) Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants Firefly Books, New Zealand
Description of the genus
Perennial herbs, from rhizomes; true aerial stems absent or weak and concealed in pseudo-stem. Leaves basal, or basal and cauline, 2-ranked differentiated into basal sheath, petiole and lamina; sheaths overlapping forming pseudo-stem; ligule absent; lateral veins parallel, diverging from prominent mid-rib. Inflorescence 1 per aerial shoot, projecting from tip of the pseudo-stem, pedunculate racemes of several- many-flowered cymes. Flowers bilaterally symmetric; sepals and petals scarcely differentiated, sepals 3, 2 fused; petals 3, fused. Fruit a drupe, blue, rarely red or yellow, at maturity. Seeds without an aril. Derivation of name: After Mount Helicon, seat of the Muses. Worldwide: 200 species in North America, Mexico, Central America, West Indies and Oceania. Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon. |
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Links to cultivated taxa View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus
| Species | Content |
| rostrata Ruiz & Pav. | Description, Image |
Other sources of information about Heliconia:
External websites:
African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): HeliconiaBHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Heliconia
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Heliconia
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Heliconia
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Heliconia
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Heliconia
JSTOR Plant Science: Heliconia
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Heliconia
Plants of the World Online: Heliconia
Tropicos: Heliconia
Wikipedia: Heliconia
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