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Heliconia indica; photograph Yercaud-elango, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAYercaud-elango, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Heliconia indica Lam.

Heliconiaceae · Maluku, Bismarck Archipelago +5 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Heliconia indica, photograph Yercaud-elango, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHeliconia indica, photograph Yercaud-elango, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHeliconia indica, photograph Yercaud-elango, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHeliconia indica, photograph KimonBerlin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHeliconia indica, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHeliconia indica, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
23.0°C
Aug at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,636mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 5 records in 5 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Heliconia indica is a species of plant in the family Heliconiaceae. It is found in Maluku and the southwest Pacific.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Heliconia indica", 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 (2,837 mm of 3,702 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 2.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

3,702 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,837 mm of it October to May. Wettest month April at 418 mm, driest month August at 201 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,790 mm to 4,438 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,636 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,702 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: 25 to 40 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.0 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 20.7 °C to 24.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.2 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 23.0 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, August, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 67 to 71% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 5 records in 5 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Heliconia indica through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April and December, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 23.0 °C; 3,702 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–40RH 67–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 5 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 26–2827 / 26–2827 / 26–2827 / 25–2726 / 25–2726 / 24–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 24–2626 / 24–2727 / 25–27
Night °C25 / 22–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 22–2625 / 22–2524 / 22–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2423 / 21–2524 / 21–2525 / 22–2525 / 22–26
Rain mm358 / 293–400387 / 343–403379 / 341–389418 / 310–441318 / 256–380247 / 189–342205 / 137–342201 / 131–313212 / 128–310255 / 176–348363 / 232–383359 / 227–401
DLI39 / 37–4037 / 35–3836 / 34–3632 / 30–3327 / 26–2925 / 24–2725 / 25–2730 / 29–3134 / 34–3538 / 36–3940 / 37–4040 / 36–41
RH %70 / 66–7670 / 66–7671 / 66–7671 / 66–7769 / 64–7769 / 63–7767 / 61–7767 / 62–7668 / 62–7669 / 63–7770 / 65–7670 / 65–76

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 32% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 18.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.7 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells holding the 5 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 2132:6964 (-16.625, 168.225). 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 5 distinct grid cells holding 5 of the 5 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2132:6964 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 32% land and none of the 2 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -16.50_168.125, lapse-corrected +167 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 204 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.
NativeMaluku, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., New Caledonia, Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu · 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-15.639, 168.092 · in the densest population, 20 records (43% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 46 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 5 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 42 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 10 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 41 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 46 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 indica, photograph 1did not loadHeliconia indica, photograph 2did not loadHeliconia indica, photograph 3did not loadHeliconia indica, photograph 4did not loadHeliconia indica, photograph 5did not loadHeliconia indica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Yercaud-elango, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); KimonBerlin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

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

Polyscias scutellaria Polyscias scutellaria Shield aralia Photo: CC BY, Dominik Maximilián RamíkPseuderanthemum maculatum Pseuderanthemum maculatum Golden Pseuderanthemum Photo: CC BY, Adam Mark Lucas-KrolSphaeropteris lunulata Sphaeropteris lunulata Balabala Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Wei CHENDavallia heterophylla Davallia heterophylla Davalliaceae Photo: CC BY, naturewatchwidowInocarpus fagifer Inocarpus fagifer Tahitian Chestnut Photo: CC BY, Leon Perrie Canarium indicum Java almond

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 RockefellerHeliconia angusta Heliconia angusta Christmas Heliconia Photo: CC0, author not stated 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, nuthatchnicole all 64 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Heliconia aureovittata; Heliconia buccinata; Heliconia seemannii; Heliconiopsis amboinensis; Heliconiopsis indica. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Heliconiaceae
Described by
Lam.
Native to
Maluku, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea +4
Wild records
46 in range · 42 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; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -16.50_168.125, lapse-corrected +167 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (32% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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