48 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Heliconia chartacea is a species of Heliconia native to tropical South America (Brazil, Venezuela, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, colombia, Ecuador and Peru).
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Heliconia chartacea", 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”, “wet tropical”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,176 mm of 3,035 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and October to December. Mean temperature moves 1.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
3,035 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,176 mm of it March to July and October to December. Wettest month May at 330 mm, driest months (2 at 203 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,933 mm to 4,293 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,890 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,035 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 34 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 19.7 °C, the absolute minimum 16.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 18.0 °C to 23.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.2 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 67 to 70% 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 -8 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”, “wet 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, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 27 °C in Jun and Jul to 29 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec; mean nightly low from 21 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Mar and Nov. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 3,035 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 97 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 16.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 29 / 25–30 | 29 / 25–31 | 29 / 26–30 | 29 / 26–30 | 28 / 26–29 | 27 / 25–29 | 27 / 25–29 | 28 / 26–30 | 29 / 27–32 | 29 / 27–33 | 29 / 26–32 | 29 / 26–30 |
| Night °C | 22 / 19–24 | 22 / 20–24 | 23 / 20–24 | 22 / 20–24 | 22 / 19–24 | 22 / 19–24 | 21 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–24 | 22 / 19–24 | 23 / 19–24 | 22 / 19–24 |
| Rain mm | 225 / 65–352 | 228 / 62–347 | 274 / 55–378 | 323 / 96–458 | 330 / 132–459 | 291 / 111–449 | 239 / 80–372 | 203 / 81–311 | 203 / 62–322 | 231 / 60–369 | 259 / 94–362 | 229 / 108–347 |
| DLI | 31 / 27–35 | 31 / 28–37 | 30 / 28–40 | 28 / 26–41 | 27 / 24–39 | 26 / 23–34 | 27 / 24–34 | 32 / 29–37 | 34 / 31–39 | 34 / 31–39 | 32 / 29–35 | 31 / 29–33 |
| RH % | 67 / 61–71 | 67 / 61–71 | 67 / 62–72 | 70 / 64–73 | 70 / 65–73 | 70 / 66–74 | 69 / 65–73 | 68 / 62–72 | 68 / 60–72 | 68 / 60–72 | 69 / 61–72 | 68 / 63–71 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Aidan, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Maurice Raymond, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Dr. Alexey Yakovlev, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Thibaud Aronson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Anthurium eminens Araceae Photo: CC BY, fern Wildtruth
Monstera spruceana Araceae Photo: CC BY, Cody Hinchliff
Anthurium gracile Red Pearls Anthurium Photo: CC BY, Letizia Weichgrebe
Drymonia coccinea Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Jonathan Ramos-Artunduaga
Philodendron brandtianum Silver Leaf Philodendron Photo: CC BY, Yuri Sofronov Cyathea lasiosora Cyatheaceae Other Heliconia 63 in the reference
Heliconia acuminata False Bird-of-paradise Photo: CC BY, Cody Hinchliff
Heliconia aemygdiana Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Alan Rockefeller
Heliconia angusta Christmas Heliconia Photo: CC0, author not stated Heliconia atratensis Heliconiaceae 
Heliconia aurantiaca Heliconiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Heliconia bihai Macaw-flower Photo: CC0, author not stated
Heliconia bourgaeana Heliconiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Heliconia burleana Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel Mesa
Heliconia caribaea Lobsterclaw Photo: CC BY, Guillaume Delaitre
Heliconia collinsiana Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Nico Carl
Heliconia curtispatha Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, nuthatchnicole
Heliconia densiflora Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel Nicholson all 64 ›Names & registers
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 17 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 2.50_-72.500, lapse-corrected -8 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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.