Species
+

Heliconia psittacorum L.f.

False Bird-of-Paradise, Golden Torch, Parakeet Flower, Parakeetflower

Climate known 64 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 psittacorum is a perennial herb native to the Caribbean and South America. It is considered native to French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. It is reportedly naturalized in Gambia, Thailand, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Jamaica and the Lesser Antilles. It is often cultivated as a tropical ornamental plant in regions outside its native range.

Text from Wikipedia, “Heliconia psittacorum”, 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
L.f.
Native to
Panama, Trinidad-Tobago, French Guiana +10
Wild records
1001 in range· 549 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Feb, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1908mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 228 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–36DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to January and March to July at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1908 mm a year, wettest May at 228 mm, driest September at 91 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 19.8 °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 cannoidea (A.Rich.) Kuntze; Bihai humilis (Aubl.) Griggs; Bihai psittacorum (L.f.) Kuntze; Bihai sylvestris Gleason; Heliconia andrewsii Klotzsch and 27 more.

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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to January and March to July at the habitat (not shifted)).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1441 mm of 1908 mm) takes 8 months, November to January and March to July. Mean temperature moves 1.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. 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 1908 mm a year, wettest May at 228 mm, driest September at 91 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1908 mm a year at the habitat, 1441 mm of it November to January and March to July. Wettest month May at 228 mm, driest September at 91 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1221 mm to 3364 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: 27 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 36 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

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 19.8 °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 19.8 °C, the absolute minimum 17.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.3 °C in July (across the envelope cells 15.8 °C to 24.1 °C), warmest day 28.8 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.8 °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 67% 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 27 °C in Jun to 29 °C in Feb; mean night from 21 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1908 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 753 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.8 °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°40°34.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–36RH 63–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 753 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 °C29 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3028 / 24–3027 / 24–2928 / 23–3028 / 24–3129 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3129 / 26–31
Night °C23 / 19–2423 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 18–2523 / 17–2522 / 17–2421 / 16–2422 / 16–2422 / 17–2523 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 19–25
Rain mm147 / 39–347135 / 34–316176 / 39–348188 / 81–394228 / 56–451194 / 22–390172 / 14–326118 / 20–30291 / 41–290123 / 35–347157 / 33–331179 / 45–321
DLI33 / 28–4035 / 29–4034 / 28–3931 / 27–3628 / 24–3227 / 22–3229 / 23–3432 / 27–3735 / 29–4036 / 29–4034 / 27–4032 / 28–40
RH %65 / 60–7064 / 60–7065 / 61–7066 / 61–7167 / 62–7267 / 59–7266 / 56–7164 / 54–7163 / 56–7164 / 59–7165 / 60–7165 / 61–70

Each figure is the median across the 753 grid cells holding the 974 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 1751:2138 (2.425, -73.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.8 °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 753 distinct grid cells holding the 974 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1751:2138 (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 2.50_-73.125, lapse-corrected -46 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 200 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.
NativePanama, Trinidad-Tobago, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Paraguay· introduced: Gambia, The, Thailand, Cook Is., Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is.
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker8.963, -79.549 · in the densest population, 223 records (22% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1001 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 549 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4997 km away. 773 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 27 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1001 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Heliconia psittacorumHeliconia psittacorumHeliconia psittacorumHeliconia psittacorumHeliconia psittacorumHeliconia psittacorumHeliconia psittacorumHeliconia psittacorum

Photographs: (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

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 psittacorum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Phytoremediation of Landfill Leachate with Colocasia esculenta, Gynerum sagittatum and Heliconia psittacorum in Constructed Wetlands
Carlos A. Madera-Parra, Enrique Javier Peña Salamanca, Miguel Peña, Diederik P.L. Rousseau (2013) · International Journal of Phytoremediation
Hannaella pagnoccae sp. nov., a tremellaceous yeast species isolated from plants and soil
Melissa Fontes Landell, Luciana R. Brandão, Anne C. Barbosa, Jesus Pais Ramos (2014) · INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY
Hastes florais de helicônia sob deficiência de macronutrientes
Ana Cecília Ribeiro de Castro, V. Loges, Andreza Santos da Costa, M.F.A. Castro (2007) · Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira
Yield and quality of inflorescences of 'Golden Torch' heliconia in different shaded environments
Rafaela Ribeiro de Souza, Márkilla Zunete Beckmann-Cavalcante, Alcilane A. Silva, Everaldo Moreira da Silva (2016) · Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agrícola e Ambiental
Phosphorus removal from domestic wastewater by Echinodorus cordifolius L.
Jirawan Torit, Wipawan Siangdung, Paitip Thiravetyan (2012) · Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A
Direct organogenesis and induction of morphogenic callus through thin section culture of Heliconia psittacorum
Chong‐Jin Goh, Marie J. Nathan, Prakash P. Kumar (1995) · Scientia Horticulturae
In Vitro Propagation of Heliconia psittacorum by Bud Culture
Marie J. Nathan, Chong‐Jin Goh, Prakash P. Kumar (1992) · HortScience
Antibacterial mechanism of biogenic copper nanoparticles synthesized using Heliconia psittacorum leaf extract
Kaushik Roy, Chandan K. Sarkar, Chandan Kumar Ghosh (2016) · Nanotechnology Reviews
Hosts of Raoiella indica Hirst (Acari: Tenuipalpidae) Native to the Brazilian Amazon
Cristina Antonia Gómez-Moya, Talita P. S. Lima, E. G. F. de Morais, Manoel G. C. Gondim (2017) · Journal of Agricultural Science

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 127 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.