Saturday, August 28, 2010

Heliconia

This is a photo of a heliconia flower on the path to the beach alongside our condo that I showed a few days ago. There are lots of varieties of heliconia in Costa Rica, and this photo shows the most common type.

Its scientific name is heliconia latispatha, and it is also know as platanilla or wild plantain. They have a fleshy fruit in September - November, which is food for birds and mammals. The flowers and fruit grow up, like bananas.

Tomorrow, to build on this little series of some of the flowers at our condo that are tended to so well by Pablo, the gardener, I will show you how Pablo trims the bushes.

This week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site we are showing photos of the people and architecture of India. It is well worth a click and a visit.

7 comments:

Living In Williamsburg Virginia said...

Fantastic floral photo. Isn't the variety of plant and animal life incredible?

Darryl and Ruth : )

Sharon said...

Another interesting tropical plant.

Life Is A Road Trip said...

I love orange. It's my favorite flower color. This kind of reminds me of a bird of paradise.

glenda said...

Great shot, ants too.

Unknown said...

Heliconias are my favourite flowers, especially the hanging H. rostrata.

Rachel said...

Ants!! That poor flower is covered in ants!

Pedro D. H. said...

It's a amazing plant. I ask my self if the fruit is taste as the beautiful of it.

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