Heliconia stricta (tentative)

Thank you once again to Earl B. of the USA for sharing another one of his photographs, this time from a vacation to Costa Rica. Much appreciated!

If my identification is correct, and it may not be considering there are over a hundred species of Heliconia as well as many cultivars, this is Heliconia stricta. Sometimes usually known as dwarf Jamaican heliconia, it is not native to Jamaica but rather northern and western South America as well as Brazil. Like a number of Heliconia species, however, it is cultivated as an ornamental throughout the Caribbean.

The family Heliconiaceae belongs to the order Zingiberales, meaning it is correlation to bananas (Musaceae), true gingers (Zingiberaceae), birds-of-paradise (Strelitziaceae) and cannas (Cannaceae).

To view some of the diversity within the family, visit the Heliconia gallery at Project Amazonas or the Heliconiaceae page at the commercial Montoso Gardens in Puerto Rico (note: this isn't an endorsement of their commercial services). Posted by: Daniel Mosquin    Source