A native of Caribbean Islands,Indonasia and tropical America,Heliconia with more than 200 cultivated species and over 2000 hybrid varieties, is grown in garden for its large and showy flower bunches and plantain-like habit. It has bright color inflorescence in different shades.
HELICONIA is widely used in land-scaping as a hedge, for its evergreen large plantain-like leaves and tall plant habit. It has an underground spreading stem which produces aerial shoots. The shoots of heliconia in turn, bear leaves and flowers. If grown in a garden, the plant will eventually become a large clump occupying a wide area and may even become a menace. Hybrid varieties like ‘Caribbean’ ‘Prince of Darkness’, ‘Black Magic’ and ‘Imperial’ are slow-growing by nature and are good to be maintained in a specified area of garden. While growing other varieties, the growth of the rhizome must be restricted by a medium high brick work or by other barriers.
Commercially, heliconia can be grown as an intercrop in plantation or as a main crop in areas where soil is loamy and humus-rich.Commonly grown heliconia hybrids like ‘Irish Bannochie’ produces 40-60 bunches;’Fire Bird’,’Richmond Red’ varieties 40-50 from a single clump per year,and have more commercial value. Another commercially grown variety ‘Prince of Darkness’ which produces less than 30 flower bunches also fetch good price in the market.
‘Episcopalis’,’Psittacorum’,’Sheroni’,’Fire fish’,’Drawf Jamacian’ etc have dwarf plant habit among the heliconia varieties and thus can be maintained in large garden pots as well.
Large and showy bracts comprise the attractive part of the flower bunch.The boat like bracts are colourfull, usually in hues of red, yellow, orange and even pink or combination of these mixed with green marking and various splashes. The bracts are smooth in some species and wooly in ‘vellerigera’.They enclose the real flower inside ,which are seen singly or in small groups and are inconspicuous and unattractive .The inflorescence which emerges from the middle of leaves of a length of over a meter are seen erect or pendent,’Rostrata’,’Chartreuse’,’Bright Red’,’Waxy’,’Penula’,’Temtress’ etc have pendent inflorence while ‘Episcopalis’,’Caribaea’,’Bihai’,’Stricta’ etc have erect flower bunches. In tropical climate heliconia produces flowers all through the year with less blooming during the monsoon season.
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