Heliconia

Scientific Name: Heliconia psittacorum 'Sassy' (not 100% sure of the exact species because there are too many)
Common Name: Heliconia

Family: Heliconiacae

General Facts:

• Heliconias are grown for the florist's trade – used in flower arrangements and as landscape plants.

Interesting Facts:

• Also called false bird-of-paradise due to their close similarity to the bird-of-paradise flowers
• In the American Tropics, hummingbirds are the exclusive polinators of red, yellow , pink and orange heliconias while nectar feeding bats are the polinators of green heliconias.
• The hummingbirds evolved long curved bills to be able to reach to the bottom of the flower tube to obtain the nectar. Even their tongue is long -- twice as long as the bill -- so that they can reach even further down the tube.
• In most cases the size of the flower tube on the plant matches the exact size of the bill on the pollinating hummingbird. Certain Heliconias with deep flower tubes rely on a specific hummingbird with an extra long bill to pollinate them.
• Unlike most other flowers, Heliconias have evolved a relationship that gives hummingbirds "exclusive" feeding (and pollination) rights, because neither color nor smell has developed to attract insects. Hummingbirds have no sense of smell. And different species of heliconia uses the birds in different ways. Each species places its pollen on a specific part of a hummingbird’s body to avoid pollen waste and contamination from other Heliconia species in the same region.