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Heliconia angusta; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-12

Heliconia angusta Vell.

Christmas Heliconia

Heliconiaceae · Brazil Southeast · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Heliconia angusta, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHeliconia angusta, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHeliconia angusta, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHeliconia angusta, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHeliconia angusta, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heliconia angusta, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) 55 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
10.6°C
Record low 5.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,808mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to September (October to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Heliconia angusta Vell. (syn.: Heliconia agustifolia Hook., Heliconia bicolor Benth., Heliconia brasiliensis Hook.), of family Heliconiaceae is an erect herb typically growing 0.70 m tall, native to Brazil (South America).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Heliconia angusta", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Heliconia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Heliconia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “rhizomatous geophyte”, “seasonally dry tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,310 mm of 1,780 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.7 °C against a yearly mean of 22.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

1,780 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,310 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 268 mm, driest month August at 50 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,380 mm to 2,299 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,808 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,780 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 10.6 °C, the absolute minimum 5.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 11.3 °C to 17.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.8 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +58 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Heliconia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “rhizomatous geophyte”, “seasonally dry tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Heliconia angusta through the yearWarmest month February, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 14.8 °C; 1,780 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°37.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER5.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–38RH 63–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 55 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 25–3028 / 26–3027 / 25–2925 / 23–2724 / 21–2523 / 20–2522 / 20–2423 / 21–2523 / 21–2525 / 22–2725 / 23–2726 / 24–28
Night °C22 / 18–2322 / 18–2421 / 18–2319 / 16–2217 / 13–2016 / 12–1915 / 11–1815 / 12–1817 / 13–1918 / 15–2020 / 16–2121 / 17–22
Rain mm268 / 199–343203 / 122–262224 / 165–285133 / 110–16081 / 61–10354 / 43–7053 / 37–8350 / 38–6899 / 74–132138 / 106–170216 / 148–273261 / 209–378
DLI37 / 35–3838 / 36–3932 / 31–3328 / 26–2923 / 21–2522 / 19–2322 / 20–2426 / 25–2828 / 26–2931 / 30–3334 / 32–3635 / 32–37
RH %66 / 63–6966 / 63–6868 / 64–7067 / 65–6965 / 64–6863 / 62–6563 / 62–6563 / 61–6665 / 62–6766 / 63–6967 / 64–7067 / 64–71
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 55 grid cells holding the 96 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2236:2765 (-21.825, -41.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 55 distinct grid cells holding 96 of the 96 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2236:2765 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -22.00_-41.875, lapse-corrected +58 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 337 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil Southeast · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-22.542, -43.233 · in the densest population, 137 records (53% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 257 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 96 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 180 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 391 km away. 42 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 161 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 257 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Heliconia angusta, photograph 1did not loadHeliconia angusta, photograph 2did not loadHeliconia angusta, photograph 3did not loadHeliconia angusta, photograph 4did not loadHeliconia angusta, photograph 5did not loadHeliconia angusta, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Begonia arborescens Begonia arborescens Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizAechmea weilbachii Aechmea weilbachii Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Victor Hugo B. GalvãoPlinia edulis Plinia edulis Myrtaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedVriesea simplex Vriesea simplex Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizTillandsia gardneri Tillandsia gardneri Airplant Photo: CC BY, Celso Henrique Varela RiosAnthurium harrisii Anthurium harrisii Araceae Photo: CC BY, Pablo Cauã da Silva Toledo

Other Heliconia 63 in the reference

Heliconia acuminata Heliconia acuminata False Bird-of-paradise Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffHeliconia aemygdiana Heliconia aemygdiana Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Alan Rockefeller Heliconia atratensis Heliconiaceae Heliconia aurantiaca Heliconia aurantiaca Heliconiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHeliconia bihai Heliconia bihai Macaw-flower Photo: CC0, author not statedHeliconia bourgaeana Heliconia bourgaeana Heliconiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHeliconia burleana Heliconia burleana Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel MesaHeliconia caribaea Heliconia caribaea Lobsterclaw Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreHeliconia chartacea Heliconia chartacea Pink flamingo heliconia Photo: CC BY, AidanHeliconia collinsiana Heliconia collinsiana Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Nico CarlHeliconia curtispatha Heliconia curtispatha Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, nuthatchnicoleHeliconia densiflora Heliconia densiflora Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel Nicholson all 64 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Bihai angusta; Bihai angustifolia; Heliconia angustifolia; Heliconia aurorea; Heliconia bicolor and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Heliconiaceae
Described by
Vell.
Native to
Brazil Southeast
Wild records
257 in range · 180 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 13 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -22.00_-41.875, lapse-corrected +58 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 43 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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