Heliconia subgenus Heliconiopsis (Miq.) W. J. Kress, Allertonia 6: 15. 1990

1.1. Heliconia subgenus Heliconiopsis (Miq.) W. J. Kress, Allertonia 6: 15. 1990 .

Figs 3 A – D View Figure 3

Heliconiopsis Miq. View in CoL , Fl. Nederl. Ind. 3: 590. 1859.

Type.

Heliconiopsis amboinensis Miq. nom. illeg. (≡ Heliconia buccinata Roxb. ).

Description and taxonomic notes.

Medium- to large-sized rhizomatous herbs with Musa - like habit. Inflorescence erect or pendent, with peduncle, rachis and cincinnal bracts green to variously colored with red and yellow; cincinnal bracts distichous or spirally arranged, horizontal to deflexed. Flowers with diurnal or nocturnal anthesis, resupinate and held at right angles to bracts or not resupinate and fully or partially enclosed in bracts; perianth uniformly curved, essentially green or white to green to yellow, variously shaped; ovary green to yellow to orange. Fruits bright red, orange, or blue, glabrous to tomentose. subgenus Heliconiopsis originally included only the six species native to the Asian-Pacific tropics (defined here in sect. Heliconiopsis ), but now encompasses at least four additional species from South America contained in sect. Perplexae . Although the latter species are quite distinctive from the paleotropical taxa in inflorescence and flower morphology and color, the phylogenomic analysis provides strong support ( LPP = 1.0) for the inclusion of these disparate species in a single subgenus, which is sister to all other heliconias. The morphological characters that link these two sections are not obvious.

Distribution.

Tropical Asia-Pacific and Andean South America ( Colombia, Ecuador, Fiji, Indonesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu).