Heliconia section Lasia L. Anderss.

Kress, W. John, Fér, Tomáš & Carlsen, Mónica M., 2025, Phylogenomics and a new classification of the tropical genus Heliconia L. (Monocots, Zingiberales, Heliconiaceae), PhytoKeys 251, pp. 37-66 : 37-66

1.5. 2. Heliconia section Lasia L. Anderss. , Opera Bot. 82: 78. 1985.

Figs 4 G, H

Type.

Heliconia velutina L. Anderss.

Description and taxonomic notes.

Medium-sized rhizomatous herbs with Musa - like habit. Inflorescence erect, with peduncle and rachis usually yellow, cincinnal bracts red, often yellow near rachis, usually hirsute; cincinnal bracts distichous, widely spaced, elongate and tapering. Flowers with diurnal anthesis, fully exposed at maturity, resupinate and held at nearly right angles to bracts; perianth with short tube, straight to uniformly curved, yellow to green (rarely red), glabrous; ovary green to yellow, glabrous. Fruits blue, glabrous (rarely hirsute). sect. Lasia was placed in subgen. Stenochlamys originally by Andersson (1985 a, 1992) and followed by Kress et al. (1999). In the present classification molecular data support its inclusion in subgen. Heliconia although few morphological traits support that placement and only two of the four species in the section were included in the analysis. The 1.0 LPP support clearly unites these two species in a monophyletic section, but its relationship to other sections in the subgenus is equivocal at this time.

Species.

+ Heliconia estherae Abalo & Morales ; * H. julianii Barreiros ; * H. lasiorachis L. Anderss. ; + H. velutina L. Anderss.

Distribution.

Tropical South America ( Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela).

Figures

Figure 4. Representatives of two subgenera and six sections in the new classification of Heliconia A – D subgenus Colubrosae A, B sect. Colubrosae: A H. dielsiana B H. mutisiana C, D sect. Curvae: C H. burleana D H. gilbertiana E – L subgen. Heliconia E, F sect. Heliconia: E H. bihai F H. orthotricha G, H sect. Lasia: G H. julianii H H. lasiorachis I, J sect. Cannastrum: I H. deflexa J H. venusta K, L sect. Longiflorae: K H. longiflora L H. schumanniana.