| Heliconia | |
|---|---|
| Heliconia latispatha inflorescences | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Magnoliophyta |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| (unranked): | Commelinids |
| Order: | Zingiberales |
| Family: | Heliconiaceae |
| Genus: | Heliconia L. |
| Species | |
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100-200, see text |
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Heliconia, derived from the Greek word helikonios, is a genus of about 100 to 200 species of flowering plants native to the tropical Americas and the Pacific Ocean islands west to Indonesia. Many species of Heliconia are found in rainforests or tropical wet forests of these regions. Common names for the genus include lobster-claws, wild plantains or false bird-of-paradise. The last term refers to their close similarity to the bird-of-paradise flowers (Strelitzia). Collectively, these plants are also simply referred to as heliconias.
The Heliconia are a monophyletic genus in the family Heliconiaceae, but was formerly included in the family Musaceae, which includes the bananas (e.g., Musa, Ensete; Judd et. al, 2007). However, the APG system of 1998, and its successor, the APG II system of 2003, confirms the Heliconiaceae as distinct and places them in the order Zingiberales, in the commelinid clade of monocots.
These herbaceous plants range from 0.5 to nearly 4.5 meters (1.5-15 feet) tall depending on the species (Berry and Kress, 1991). The simple leaves of these plants are 15-300 cm (6 in-10 ft). They are characteristically long, oblong, alternate, or growing opposite one another on non-woody petioles often longer than the leaf, often forming large clumps with age. Their flowers are produced on long, erect or drooping panicles, and consist of brightly colored waxy bracts, with small true flowers peeping out from the bracts. The growth habit of heliconias is similar to Canna, Strelitzia, and bananas, to which they are related.The flowers can be hues of reds, oranges, yellows, and greens, and are subtended by brightly colored bracts. The plants typically flower during the wet season. These bracts protect the flowers; floral shape often limits pollination to a subset of the hummingbirds in the region (Gilman and Meerow, 2007).
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Heliconias are grown for the florist's trade and as landscape plants. These plants do not grow well in cold, dry conditions. They are very drought intolerant, but can endure some soil flooding. Heliconias need an abundance of water, sunlight, and soils that are rich in humus in order to grow well. These flowers are grown all over the world as ornamental plants (Chong Ren, 2007). The flower of H. psittacorum (Parrot Heliconia) is especially distinctive, its greenish-yellow flowers with black spots and red bracts reminding of the bright plumage of parrots.
Several cultivars and hybrids have been selected for garden planting, including:
Most commonly grown landscape Heliconia species include Heliconia augusta, H. bihai, H. brasiliensis, H. caribaea, H. latispatha, H. pendula, H. psittacorum, H. rostrata, H. schiediana, and H. wagneriana.
Heliconias are an important food source for forest hummingbirds, especially the hermits (Phathornithinae), some of which – such as the Rufous-breasted Hermit (Glaucis hirsuta) – also use the plant for nesting. The Honduran White Bat (Ectophylla alba) also lives in tents it makes from heliconia leaves.
Leaves in different positions on the plant have a different absorption potential of sunlight for photosynthesis when exposed to different degrees of sunlight (He et al. 2006).
Flowers produce ample nectar that attracts pollinators, most prevalent of which are hummingbirds (Bruna et al. 2004)
Fruits are blue-purple when ripe and primarily bird dispersed (Uriarte et al. 2011). Post dispersal seed survival was studied and had many results (Hoii and Lulow 2006). The study showed that seed size was not a determinant of post dispersal seed survival. The highest amount of seed predation came from mammals.
Although Heliconia are almost exclusively pollinated by hummingbirds, some bat pollination has been found to occur. Heliconia solomonensis is pollinated by the macroglosine bat (Melonycteris woodfordi) in the Solomon Islands. Heliconia solomonensis has green inflourenscences and flowers that open at night, which is typical of bat pollinated plants. The macroglosine bat is the only known nocturnal pollinator of Heliconia solomonensis (Kress 1985).
Many bats use Heliconia leaves for shelter. The Honduran White Bat, Ectohylla alba, utilizes 5 different species of Heliconia to make diurnal tent shaped roosts. The bat cuts the side veins of the leaf extending from the midrib causing the leaf to fold like a tent. This structure provides the bat with shelter from rain, sun, and predators. In addition, the stems of the Heliconia leaves are not strong enough to carry the weight of typical bat predators, so shaking of the leaf alerts roosting bats to presence of predators (Timm 1976). The bats Artibeus anderseni and A. phaeotis form tents from the leaves of Heliconia in the same manner as the Hondurian white bat (Timm 1987). The Neotropical disk-winged bat, Thyroptera tricolor, has suction disks on the wrists which allow it to cling to the smooth surfaces of the Heliconia leaves. This bat roosts head up in the rolled young leaves of Heliconia plants (Findley 1974).
Heliconias provide shelter for a diverse range of insects within their young rolled leaves and water-filled floral bracts. Insects that inhabit the rolled leaves often feed upon the inner surfaces of the leaf, such as beetles of the family Chrysomelidae. In bracts containing small amounts of water, fly larvae and beetles are the dominant inhabitants. In bracts with greater quantities of water the typical inhabitants are mosquito larva. Insects living in the bracts often feed on the bract tissue, nectar of the flower, flower parts, other insects, microorganisms, or detritus in the water contained in the bract (Siefert 1982). Almost all species of Hispinae beetles that use rolled leaves are obligate parasites of plants of the order of Zingiberales, which includes Heliconia. These beetles live in and feed from the rolled leaf, the stems, the inflourescences, or the unfurled mature leaves of the Heliconia plant. In addition, these beetles deposit their eggs on the leaf surface, petioles of immature leaves, or in the bracts of the Heliconia (Strong 1977).
Hummingbirds are the main pollinators of Heliconia in many locations. At La Selva research station in Costa Rica it was found that specific species of Heliconia have specific hummingbird pollinators (Stiles 1975). These hummingbirds can be organized into two different groups: hermits and non-hermits. Hermits tend to have long curved bills while non-hermits tend to possess short straight bills. Hermits are generally non-territorial and they are traplining foragers. The non-territorial hummingbirds tend to help with cross pollination in Heliconia. Non-hermits are territorial over their Heliconia clumps and this causes more self-pollination (Stiles 1975). There are different mechanisms in Heliconia that can determine which hummingbirds choose it. Some of these are the color of the flower and also the amount of calories the flower itself provides with its nectar. The hummingbird itself will choose the plants its feeds from based off of its beak shape, its perch on the plant, and its territory choice (Linhart 1973).
It was found that hummingbird visits to the Heliconia flower did not affect its production of nectar (Feinsinger 1983). This may account for the flowers not having a consistent amount of nectar produced from flower to flower.
Different Heliconia species have different flowering seasons. This suggests that the species compete for pollinators. It was found that many species of Heliconia, even the newly colonized species, all had many pollinators visit (Feinsinger 1978).
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1. Berry, Fred and Kress, John. Heliconia Identification Guide. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. Print.
2. Bruna, E. M., W. J. Kress, F. Marques, and O. F. da Silva. 2004. Heliconia acuminata reproductive success is independent of local floral density. Acta Amazonica 34(3): 467-471
3. Chong Ren, Ong. "Heliconia Basics." Green Culture Singapore. N.p., March 2007. Web. 6 Nov 2011. <http://greenculturesg.com/articles/mar07/mar07_heliconia.htm>.
4. Feinsinger, Peter. 1978. Ecological interactions between plants and hummingbirds in a successional tropical community. Ecological Monographs 48: 269-287.
5. Feinsinger, Peter. 1983. Variable nectar secretion in a Heliconia species pollinated by hermit hummingbirds. Biotropica 15: 48-52.
6. Findley, J.S. and Wilson, D.E. (1974). “Observations on the Neotropical disk-winged bat, Thyroptera tricolor spix.” Journal of Mammology 55(3): 563-571.
7. Gilman, Edward, and Alan Meerow. "Heliconia spp. Heliconia." University of Florida IFAS Extention. N.p., 01-05-2007. Web. 25 Sept 2011. <http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fp249>.
8. He, J., C. Chee. C. Goh. ‘Photoinhibition’ of Heliconia under natural tropical conditions: the importance of leaf orientation for light interception and leaf temperature. Plant, Cell, and Environment 19: 1238-1248.
9. Hoii, Karen, Megan Lulow. 2006. Effects of species, habitat, and distance from edge on post-dispersal seed predation in a Tropical Rainforest. Biotropica 29: 459-468.
10. Judd, Walter, et all. Plant Systematics: A phylogentic approach. 3rd. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates, Inc., 2007. 78, 230, 304, and 367.
11. Kress, W. J. (1985). "Bat Pollination of an Old World Heliconia." Biotropica 17(4): 302-308.
12.Linhart, Yan. 1973. Ecological and behavioral determinants of pollen dispersal in hummingbird- pollinated Heliconia. The American Naturalist 107. 511- 523.
13. Seifert, R.P. 1982. Neotropical Heliconia insect communities. The Quarterly Review of Biology 57: 1-28.
14.Stiles, Gary. 1975. Ecology, flowering phenology, and hummingbird pollination of some Costa Rican Heliconia species. Ecology 56: 285-301.
15. Strong Jr., Donald R. "Insect Speicies Richness: Hispine Beetles of the Heliconia Latispatha." Ecology. 58. (1977): n. page. Print.
16. Timm, R.W. and Mortimer, J. (1976). “Selection of Roost sited by Honduran White Bats, Ectophylla Alba (Chiroptera: Phyllostomatidae).” Ecology 57(2):385-389.
17. Timm, R.W. and Patterson, B.D. (1987). “Tent Construction by bats of the genera Artibeus and Uroderma.” Fieldiana: Zoology 29: 188-212.
18. Uriarte, M. Anciães, M. T.B. da Silva, P. Rubim, E. Johnson, and E. M. Bruna. 2011. Disentangling the drivers of of reduced long-distance seed dispersal by birds in an experimentally fragmented landscape. Ecology 92(4): 924-937.