Skip to main content

Parrot's beak (Heliconia psittacorum)

Dlium Parrot's beak (Heliconia psittacorum)

Parrot's beak (Heliconia psittacorum) is a species of plant in the Heliconiaceae, perennial herb forming a dense, erect, up to 2 meters tall shrub, hermaphrodite angiosperm, male parts are the anthers, female parts are stigma and pistil, often cultivated as a tropical ornamental plant.

H. psittacorum has a blackish green underside, middle and top bases are green. The leaves have long stalks, cylindrical, slender, dark green, erect or to the side and horizontal strands.



The leaf blade is oblong in shape, pointed tip, a vein in the middle forming a trench, wavy surface, flat margin, dark green upper side and pale green underside.

The flowers at the end of the stalk are long, cylindrical, slender, erect, up to 1 meter high and green. Flowers are spathe and calix, red or yellow or white with black.

TAXON

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Heliconiaceae
Genus: Heliconia
Subgenus: Stenochlamys
Section: Stenochlamys L. in Mant. Pl. 2: 147 (1771)
Species: Heliconia psittacorum L.f. in Suppl. Pl.: 158 (1782)

HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS

Bihai psittacorum (L.f.) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 684 (1891)

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS

Bihai cannoidea (A.Rich.) Kuntze (1891)
Bihai humilis (Aubl.) Griggs in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 31: 445 (1904)
Bihai sylvestris Gleason in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 52: 192 (1925)
Heliconia andrewsii Klotzsch in Linnaea 20: 465 (1847)
Heliconia bahiensis Barreiros in Rodriguésia 29(44): 226 (1978)
Heliconia ballia Rich. in Actes Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 107 (1792)
Heliconia brasiliensis var. concolor Petersen in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Bras. 3(3): 21 (1890)
Heliconia cannoidea A.Rich. in Nova Acta Phys.-Med. Acad. Caes. Leop.-Carol. Nat. Cur. 15(Suppl.): 24 (1831)
Heliconia goiasensis Barreiros in Rodriguésia 28: 131 (1976)
Heliconia hirsuta var. cannoidea (A.Rich.) Baker in Ann. Bot. (Oxford) 7: 197 (1893)
Heliconia humilis (Aubl.) Jacq. in Pl. Hort. Schoenbr. 1: 23 (1797)
Heliconia marantifolia G.Shaw in J.F.Miller, Cimelia Phys.: 74 (1796)
Heliconia psittacorum var. rhizomatosa Aristeg. in Gen. Heliconia Venez.: 16a (1961)
Heliconia psittacorum var. robusta Eichler ex Petersen (1890)
Heliconia psittacorum var. spathacea Eichler ex Petersen (1890)
Heliconia schomburgkiana Klotzsch (1847)
Heliconia swartziana Roem. & Schult. in J.J.Roemer & J.A.Schultes, Syst. Veg., ed. 15[bis]. 5: 591 (1819)
Heliconia sylvestris (Gleason) L.B.Sm. in Contr. Gray Herb. 124: 6 (1939)
Musa humilis Aubl. in Hist. Pl. Guiane 2: 931 (1775)

PUBLICATIONS

Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2005). Monocotyledons and Gymnosperms of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 52: 1-415.

Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.

Aung, Y.L., Aung, M.H., Tan, Y. & Jin, X. (2025). An updated checklist of vascular plants of Myanmar. PhytoKeys 261: 135-364.

Garcia-Mendoza, A.J. & Meave, J.A. (eds.) (2012). Diversidad florística de Oaxaca: de musgos a angiospermas (colecciones y listas de especies), ed. 2: 1-351. Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Govaerts, R. (2004). World Checklist of Monocotyledons Database in ACCESS: 1-54382. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Hokche, O., Berry, P.E. & Huber, O. (eds.) (2008). Nuevo Catálogo de la Flora Vascular de Venezuela: 1-859. Fundación Instituto Botánico de Venezuela.

Jones, M. (1991). A checklist of Gambian plants: 1-33. Michael Jones, The Gambia College.

Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2008). Catálogo de las plantes vasculares de Honduras. Espermatofitas: 1-1576. SERNA/Guaymuras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Santisuk, T. & Larsen, K. (eds.) (2008). Flora of Thailand 9(2): 91-188. The Forest Herbarium, National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok.

Sykes, W.R. (2016). Flora of the Cook Islands: 1-973. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Hawaii.

Villaseñor, J.L. (2016). Checklist of the native vascular plants of Mexico. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 87: 559-902.

de Moura Júnior, E.G. & al. (2015). Updated checklist of aquatic macrophytes from Northern Brazil. Acta Amazonica 45: 111-132.

VERNACULAR NAME

Bali: Sumpit udang
Chinese (simplified): 百合蝎尾蕉
Chinese (traditional): 百合蝎尾蕉 - 豔紅赫蕉
Czech: Bihaja papouščí
English: Parrot's Beak, Shrimp chopsticks, Shrimp flower, Parakeet flower, Parrot's flower, Parrot's plantain, Golden torch, Parrot's beak, Parakeet flower, Parrot's flower, Parrot's plantain, False bird-of-paradise, Parakeet Flower
Filipino: Tuka ng loro
Finnish: Kirjohelikonia
French: Bec de Perroquet
German: Papageien-Hummerschere
Indonesian: Supit udang, Paruh Beo
Japanese: ヒメゴクラクチョウカ
Java: Sapit urang
Lithuanian: Papūginis bangminys
Maori: Tiare parata‘ito
Melayu: Penyepit udang
Polish: Helikonia papuzia
Portuguese: Helicônia-papagaio, Paquevira
Russian: Геликония попугайная
Samoan: Vae paa
Slovak: Helikónia papagájovitá
Spanish: Avecilla
Taiwan: 豔紅赫蕉
Thai: ธรรมรักษา - ปากนกแก้ว

Aryo Bandoro
Dlium TheDlium
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dlium
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Javan mocca or Javan slender caesar (Amanita javanica)

OPINION - Javan mocca or Javan slender caesar ( Amanita javanica ) is a mysterious fungus species and has been enigmatic since it was first reported by Boedijn in 1951 and after that no explanation or reporting of specimens is believed to be the same as expected. Boedijn (1951) described A. javanica which grew on Java island as having the characteristics covered in the Amanita genus. Corner and Bas in 1962 tried to describe Javan mocca and all species in Amanita based on specimens in Singapore. Over time some reports say that they have found A. javanica specimens in other Southeast Asia including also China, Japan, India and Nepal. But there is no definitive knowledge and many doubt whether the specimen is the same as described by Boedijn (1951). I was fortunate to have seen this species one afternoon and soon I took out a camera for some shots. In fact, I've only met this mushroom species once. Javan mocca is an endangered species and I have never seen in my experience in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Awar awar (Ficus septica)

Awar-awar or lagnob or hauli tree or barabar or sirih popar or tobo tobo ( Ficus septica ) is species of plants in Moraceae, trees grow in bushes or in neglected places and sap contained in roots, twigs, leaves and fruit is used to treat poisoning and digestive problems. F. septica is usually 1-5 m high, although in the forest it can be up to 25 m. Round, hollow and bare branches. Roots, twigs, leaves and fruit will emit a yellow sap and sticky if injured. The base of the leaves is large and spiky, arranged alternately or face to face with a stem length of 2.5-5 cm. Large leaf blade, round egg, 9-30x9-16 cm, rounded base and blunt narrow tip, flat-edged, upper side dark green with 6-12 secondary bones pale white. Fruit paired, single or clustered up to 4 items, short-stemmed, at the base has 3 protective leaves, light green or gray green and 1.5 cm in diameter. F. septica is food for 22 animal species including wasps, bats, birds, monkeys and mice as well as seed dispersing vecto...
Post a Comment
Read more