Heliconias
Besides orchids, few flowers inspire more superlatives than Heliconias. These blooms scream tropical. Sometimes called lobster-claws, wild plantains, or false birds-of-paradise, their bizarre flowers have wild colors and shapes.
These remarkable blooms are actually small flowers encased in large, colorful bracts. Some varieties have flower spikes that grow more than 8 feet (2.4 m) long. Heliconia flowers can hang down, stick up, or have a horizontal direction. Many have zig-zags and twisty-turns that seem to defy the imagination.
Heliconias are banana and ginger relatives, and it’s no surprise that they’re hummingbird favorites. They’re native to jungles of tropical America and some Pacific Islands. These photos show plants growing in a rainforest climate at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. In colder areas, some Heliconias can be grown outdoors as container plants, and moved indoors for winter.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 9:26 am
Those are absolutely breath taking! They don’t even look real so I’ll just take your word for it (and of course your photos are great proof!)
March 8th, 2010 at 10:21 am
Sometimes I see these at the florist but I never know what they are. Thanks for the post and the pretty pictures too!!!
March 10th, 2010 at 11:00 am
thanks for the photos
March 27th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
they’re so bizarre that they don’t even look real, but I’ve seen them at the florist so I know they are. I’ve never seen this many varieties of them. Thanks 🙂
May 1st, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Stunning! those are really fantastic flowers. I see them sometimes at the florist, so its great to see them growing wild.