1.5. 4. Heliconia section Longiflorae W. J. Kress, sect. nov.

Figs 4 K, L

Type.

Heliconia longiflora R. R. Smith.

Description and taxonomic notes.

Small to medium-sized rhizomatous herbs with Zingiber - like habit. Inflorescence erect with peduncle and rachis yellow or green and cincinnal bracts red with orange to yellow towards rachis; cincinnal bracts distichous and widely separated. Flowers with diurnal anthesis, fully exposed at maturity, resupinate and held at right angles to bracts; perianth generally straight to variously curved, white to yellow to orange, sometimes green towards apex, glabrous; ovary white to yellow to orange with green apex, glabrous. Fruits blue, glabrous. The Zingiber - like habit of the shoots is a shared featured of the species in this section, which has 1.0 LPP support in the molecular analysis. Andersson (1985 a) previously named this section “ Zingiberastrum ” and designated H. hirsuta as the type. However, H. hirsuta L. f. is placed in sect. Stenochlamys in the present classification and the section is renamed sect. Longiflorae with the designation of a new type.

Species.

+ Heliconia apparicioi Barreiros; * H. cordata L. Anderss.; + Heliconia ecuadoriensis (L. Anderss.) W. J. Kress, comb. et stat. nov. ( Heliconia longiflora ssp. ecuadoriensis L. Anderss., Opera Bot. 82: 113. 1985. Type. Asplund 16457. Ecuador, Esmeraldas, Timbre [San Mateo], 24 May 1955 [S]); * H. longiflora R. R. Smith; * H. schumanniana Loes.; + H. tacarcunae L. Anderss.

Distribution.

Tropical Central America and South America (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru).