Heliconias are plants of great ornamental beauty due to their colors, strange geometric shapes and their banana tree shape. The heliconias are known throughout the world as exotic tropical plants, for their variety of colors, shapes, sizes, and long durability.
What is a Heliconia?
Heliconias are plants whose height varies from 1.2 to 1.9 meters, sometimes more. Their roots are strong and reach up to four meters, therefore, the heliconia is resistant to erosion.
As well as heliconias, birds of paradise, achiras, gingers, bilbos, and other plants known as platanillos are botanically grouped in the order Zingiberales.
The order Zingiberales is composed of eight families: Musaceae, Heliconeaceae, Strelitziaceae, Lowiaceae, Zingiberaceae, Cannaceae, Marantaceae and Costaceae.
Among these, the best known are the gingers and the birds of paradise (Betancur and Crees, 1993).
The family Heliconiaceae is represented only by the genus Heliconia and has about 250 species, of which 98% are distributed in Central and South America, and the Caribbean (Kress, 1994, cited by Maza and Builes, 2000).
Heliconias of Colombia
Of the more than 250 species of the genus Heliconia, 110 are distributed in the wild in Colombia, and 48 of them have been reported as endemic. Among these species, many have some degree of threat.
Most of the species are distributed in the Andean and Pacific regions, between sea level and 2400 m of altitude.
The regions of Colombia with the highest proportion of endemic Heliconias are the Andean with 75% and the Pacific with 20%.
Moreover, the regions with the highest concentration of species are the more humid regions, such as the western Andean slope (35%), the Atrato river valley (25%), the Magdalena river slopes (25%) and the eastern Andean region (25%) (Betancur and Kress, 1995, 1999).
Thus, Colombia is the largest center of Heliconias diversity in the world (Abalo and Morales, 1982).
Heliconia Flowers are Exported from Colombia
Heliconias are used worldwide on various occasions and special dates throughout the year.
The colorful heliconias we know are inflorescences. The real flower is white, small, and is inside. However, what is marketed is the inflorescence, even, the inner flower must be removed in post-production, otherwise it generates a bad smell in the plant.
Colombia is an exporter of heliconias with destinations such as the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Aruba, Holland, and some Asian countries like Japan.
The market for Heliconias is very demanding. This is due to the special care that this type of flowers requires both in its production process and in the handling after it, and to the different attributes to which great importance is attributed by the trader and the final consumer (color, size, shape, quality, etc.)
Heliconias as a Tourist Attraction
Recently, ornamental flora and fauna such as Heliconias, orchids, butterflies, etc. is becoming a potential tourist attraction, especially in Colombia, a country of high biological diversity.
Nature tourism is a good option when you want to get to know these exotic plants in their natural habitat.
In Colombia, there are several places where you can find heliconias. Here I recomend you three places you can visit to see the exuberance of the heliconias.
Quindio Botanical Garden
This place is known for its great butterfly farm, but it is also an excellent destination to see the largest collections of palms and heliconias in Colombia. It also has an insect zoo and three sites for bird watching, among many other things.
The National Collection of Heliconias
The National Collection of Heliconias is located in the Quindio Botanical Garden. This collection has been made thanks to the support of Professor Gustavo Morales in terms of the supply of specimens and their curatorship.
The collection currently holds 45% of the 115 species estimated for Colombia, and its objective is to achieve 100% representation of this family.
The collection includes species of the family Heliconiaceae and the genus Heliconia. 13 of the species contained have some category of threat. In particular,H. abaloi, H. berryziana, H. foreroi, and H. oleosa are critically endangered (CR).
Sara Colmenares holds a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Ecology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Master’s degree in Botany from the same institution. Her doctoral research focused on palm ecology in the Atlantic Forest, supported by the Rufford Foundation conservation grant.
A published researcher in the Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology and a member of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), Sara has presented her work at international conferences across Latin America and beyond. She was awarded the COLCIENCIAS “Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda” fellowship, one of Colombia’s most competitive academic distinctions for young researchers.
Sara founded the Sula nature tourism brand in 2018, applying her scientific expertise to develop birding and wildlife experiences across Colombia’s six natural regions. Her fieldwork took her from the cloud forests of the Andes to the Amazon basin, the Pacific coast, and the plains of the Orinoquía. She combined deep ecological knowledge with firsthand experience to create content that is both scientifically accurate and practically useful for nature travelers.
She holds a B.Sc. in Biology from the National University of Colombia, where she also taught plant ecophysiology. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and English.