Heliconia

Description:

This plant has flowers with long (9 cm), red, smooth petals. There were three petals per flower, with light green stamens. The flower is about 10 cm high, and is the size of your fist. There is no fruit, and the leaf shape is elliptical, but it is very skinny. The leaf is about 56 cm long, and 13.5 cm wide. The margins of the leaf is entire, and the arrangement is alternate. The leaf venation is netted pinnate, and the leaf was very waxy, leathery, and smooth. It also had a drip tip. The texture of the bark was slippery and smooth (the last picture is one of the bark). The plant was about a meter high.

Habitat:

This plant was found in a secondary rainforest in a sunny area by the path.

Notes:

It is commonly called Parrot's Beak, Parakeet Flower, Parrot's Flower, Parrot's Plantain, and False Bird of Paradise. This is an herb, native to the Caribbean and northern South America. It is an invasive species and is an ornamental plant.