1.3. Heliconia subgenus Taeniostrobus (Kuntze) Griggs, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 30: 643. 1903.

Figs 3 I – L

Bihai section Taeniostrobus Kuntze, Revisio Generum Plantarum. Pars I: 684. 1891.

Type.

Bihai imbricata Kuntze ( Heliconia imbricata (Kuntze) Baker (designated by L. Andersson, Flora of Ecuador 22: 11. 1985.).

Description and taxonomic notes.

Small- to large-sized rhizomatous herbs with Musa -, Canna -, or Zingiber - like habit. Inflorescence erect (rarely pendent), with peduncle, rachis and cincinnal bracts of various colors from pink to red to orange to yellow; cincinnal bracts distichous or spirally arranged. Flowers with diurnal anthesis, not resupinate and fully or partially enclosed in bracts or fully resupinate and held at right angles to bracts; perianth uniformly curved (rarely s-shaped), white to green to yellow; ovary green to yellow to red. Fruits blue, glabrous. subgenus Taeniostrobus in the current classification is made up of two sections (sects. Taeniostrobus and Aurantiacae) and includes species from four earlier designated subgenera (subgens. Taeniostrobus, Heliconia, Stenochlamys, and Griggsia), although the majority of species were included in Andersson’s subgen. Heliconia sect. Tortex . Few, if any, morphological traits are shared by all species across subgen. Taeniostrobus . The very high strong support (LPP = 1.0) in the phylogenomic analysis is primary evidence for uniting these species into a single monophyletic subgenus with two somewhat distinct sections.

Distribution.

Tropical Mexico, Central, and South America (Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela).