Species
+

Heliconia latispatha Benth.

Expanded Lobsterclaw

Climate known 45 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Heliconia latispatha is a plant species native to southern Mexico, Central America and northern South America and naturalized in Florida and Jamaica. It is an herbaceous perennial up to 4 m tall, with leaves resembling those of bananas. The inflorescence is erect, up to 45 cm long, with red or orange bracts subtending green, yellow or orange flowers.

Text from Wikipedia, “Heliconia latispatha”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Heliconia

Heliconia is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the western Pacific and Maluku in Indonesia. Many species of Heliconia are found in the tropical forests of these regions. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Heliconia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Heliconiaceae
Described by
Benth.
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +12
Wild records
1418 in range· 613 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Apr, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2605mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 340 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Heliconia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.5 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2605 mm a year, wettest September at 340 mm, driest March at 66 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Bihai latispatha (Benth.) Griggs; Heliconia aequatoriensis Loes.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Heliconia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.5 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1879 mm of 2605 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 2.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2605 mm a year, wettest September at 340 mm, driest March at 66 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2605 mm a year at the habitat, 1879 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 340 mm, driest March at 66 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1474 mm to 4559 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 20.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.0 °C, the absolute minimum 18.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 14.5 °C to 23.6 °C), warmest day 28.7 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 26 °C in Dec to 29 °C in Apr; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2605 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 906 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 18.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°32.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)18.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 26–37RH 63–70 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 906 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 22–3027 / 23–3128 / 24–3229 / 24–3328 / 24–3328 / 23–3127 / 23–3128 / 23–3128 / 23–3027 / 22–2927 / 22–2926 / 22–29
Night °C20 / 15–2420 / 15–2421 / 15–2422 / 16–2523 / 17–2523 / 16–2522 / 16–2522 / 16–2522 / 16–2422 / 16–2421 / 16–2420 / 15–24
Rain mm87 / 14–26774 / 11–20466 / 15–241111 / 31–368276 / 94–520313 / 154–534297 / 123–525318 / 140–549340 / 177–596335 / 161–645241 / 59–505147 / 25–331
DLI31 / 24–3534 / 28–3837 / 31–4137 / 28–4231 / 25–4229 / 24–3830 / 24–3931 / 25–3830 / 25–3528 / 23–3326 / 23–3228 / 23–32
RH %65 / 57–7164 / 56–7063 / 56–6965 / 57–7168 / 60–7369 / 63–7569 / 63–7569 / 63–7569 / 65–7570 / 64–7669 / 62–7567 / 59–73

Each figure is the median across the 906 grid cells holding the 1344 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1592:1919 (10.375, -84.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 906 distinct grid cells holding the 1344 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1592:1919 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 10.50_-83.750, lapse-corrected -30 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 183 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru· introduced: Zaïre, Bangladesh, Hawaii, Florida, Jamaica
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker9.766, -83.79 · in the densest population, 452 records (32% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1418 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 613 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 17 km away. 124 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 74 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1418 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Heliconia latispathaHeliconia latispathaHeliconia latispathaHeliconia latispathaHeliconia latispathaHeliconia latispathaHeliconia latispathaHeliconia latispatha

Photographs: (c) Nicolás Baresch Uribe, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Edwin Rivera Millán, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Josiah Londerée, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) chrisdt, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Heliconia latispatha, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Shape Matters: Hofmeister’s Rule, Primordium Shape, and Flower Orientation
Bruce K. Kirchoff (2003) · International Journal of Plant Sciences
Structural and physiological adaptation to light environments in neotropical Heliconia (Heliconiaceae)
Philip W. Rundel, M. Rasoul Sharifi, Arthur C. Gibson, Karen J. Esler (1998) · Journal of Tropical Ecology
Early floral development of Heliconia latispatha (Heliconiaceae), a key taxon for understanding the evolution of flower development in the Zingiberales
Bruce K. Kirchoff, Laura P. Lagomarsino, Winnell Newman, Madelaine Bartlett (2009) · American Journal of Botany
Partially Saturated Vertical Constructed Wetlands and Free-Flow Vertical Constructed Wetlands for Pilot-Scale Municipal/Swine Wastewater Treatment Using Heliconia latispatha
José Antonio Fernández Viveros, Georgina Martínez-Reséndiz, Florentina Zurita, José Luis Marín‐Muñiz (2022) · Water
Development of Heliconia latispatha in constructed wetlands, for the treatment of swine/domestic wastewater in tropical climates, with PET as a substitute for the filter medium
E. Fernández-Echeverria, Tecnológico Nacional de México/Instituto Tecnológico de Misantla, L.C. Sandoval Herazo, Florentina Zurita (2022) · Revista Mexicana de Ingeniería Química
Evaluation of the pollutant removal efficiency of swine wastewater through two configurations of hybrid wetlands with tropical ornamental plants
Gaspar Monteagudo-Hernández, Denisse Astrid Hernández-Castelán, Teresa Zamora-Lobato, Mayerlín Sandoval-Herazo (2024) · Results in Engineering
Diversity begets diversity: Phorophyte and microsite relations of foliicolous lichens in the lowland rain forest at Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve (Veracruz, Mexico)
Paola Martínez Colín, Robert Lücking, María de los Ángeles Herrera‐Campos (2021) · Ecological Research

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Heliconia 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 103 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.