Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Monocotyledon Literature for Heliconia bihai
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Heliconiaceae -- The Heliconia Family Bibliography
      Heliconia bihai
General Information
DistributionNative to the Caribbean and South America.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on O`ahu, Maui.
















Habit
 Perennial herbs 2-5 m tall, forming dense clumps.
Leaves
 Longest blade 100-250 cm long, 20-40 cm wide, both surfaces green; petioles 50-115 cm long.
Flowers
 Flowers 10-20 per cincinnus, in erect inflorescences up to 60 cm long (exc. peduncle), rachis red, cincinnal bracts reddish orange with green margins and apex, 12-25 cm long, 11-13 cm wide at base, distichous, 5-12 per inflorescence, glabrous, margins straight, middle bract with apex acuminate; perianth white basally to pale green toward apex, 5.5-6.5 cm long, glabrous; ovary white, glabrous.
Fruit
 Drupes blue, glabrous.
Chromosomes
 2n = 24