Heliconia  psittacorum L.f.


Family: HELICONIACEAE
Sub-Family: Not available
English Name: False Bird-of-Paradise
Synonym: Heliconia bahiensis Barreiro
Common Name: Golden torch, parrot's beak, parrot flower, parrot plant
Flowering & Fruiting Period: Throughout the year
Distribution: Native of South America
Habitat: Grown as garden plant
Uses: Ornamental
Key Characteristics: Evergreen, perennial rhizomatous erect herbaceous species. The leaves, are basal, alternate, simple, entire, elliptic-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate with pointed apex and prominent central nervation, of bright intense green colour above, paler below, and sheathing tubular foliar bases forming a pseudo-stem. The inflorescence, a terminal spike with slightly waved rachis, usually orange, and 3-7 alternate, lanceolate, concave, waxy, bracts, slightly spaced, red to bright orange red, at times pink or lilac. The bracts subtend 3-9 flowers, usually orange with dark green spot towards the apex. The flowers, with bilateral symmetry, are hermaphroditic, with 3 sepals, two of which merged and one free, and three petals fused together, little spaced between them, 5 fertile stamina and one staminode opposite to the free sepal; the flowers are pollinated by the hummingbirds. The fruits are sub-globose drupes initially yellow to orange, then glossy dark blue when ripe.