IJSAT: ISSN 1815-1272, Volume 9 Issue 1 2013

Title code: IJSAT/ 130122

Int. J. Sustain. Agril. Tech. 9(1): 120-122, January 2013
An online Journal of G-Science Implementation and Publication, website: www.gurpukur.com or www.gscience.net

MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF Heliconia spp: A PROMISING CUT FLOWER IN

BANGLADESH
M. S. ISLAM, H. MEHRAJ, M. Z. K. RONI, A. F. ONA and A. F. M. JAMAL UDDIN*

Department of Horticulture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

*Correspondence author: jamal4@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
A pot experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Farm, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka,
Bangladesh during October, 2010 to December, 2011 to distinguish the performances of different Heliconia
cultivars and explore as promising cut flower with its five cultivars namely Pink blush, Scarlet torch,
Golden torch, Red devil and Lob-star-claw in the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three
replications. Significant differences among cultivars were found for all of the attributes evaluated. All five
cultivars performed acceptably well as cut flower and could be explore and popularize as commercial cut
flower in Bangladesh after further verification responding various factor as well as cultural practices.

Keywords: Heliconia and Cutflower.

INTRODUCTION
Heliconia is a dwarf plantain like plant belongs to the family Heliconiaceae consists of a single rather
large genus Heliconia L., with 100 or more species, native mainly to tropical and subtropical South and
Central America (Cronquist, 1981). The name Heliconia is derived from Helicon, a mountain in
southern Greece regarded by the ancient Greeks as the home of the Muses, thus suggesting the
relationship between these plants and the bananas, genus Musa (Berry and Kress, 1991). It is grown
both for cut flowers and for garden or bed decoration purposes (Sachs, 1977; Fisher, 1976). Due to
horticultural and commercial popularity, they are now being grown in nearly all of the tropical regions
of the world, including Africa and Asia. Heliconia, also popularly known as lobster-claw, wild plantain
and bird-of-paradise, is a beautiful flower with multi-color bracts and varied flower structure. Heliconia
flowers are actually highly modified leaves and bracts. Their flowers are produced on long, erect or
drooping panicles and consist of brightly colored waxy bracts with small true flowers peeping out from
the bracts. A bract is a leaf structure at the base of a flower can be orange, purple, red, yellow, pink,
green, or their combinations. They need an abundance of water, full sunlight and soils that are rich in
humus in order to grow well as ornamental plants (Ong, 2007). Shading and crowding cause less
production and elongated, weak stems (Broschat and Donselman, 1983). The flower is well adapted to
all major agro climatic zones in Bangladesh. Different varieties are suitable for both landscaping and as
cut flower. By now many species of Heliconia are also introduced and widely grown in Bangladesh,
mainly for their ornamental value. It deserves particular importance due to easy culture, wide
adaptability to soil and climate and less prone to disease and pests. In recent times, the demand of this
flowering plant is increasing due to its attractive color, prolong shelf life and economic value (Halevy et
al., 1978). Though Heliconia is grown in Bangladesh however there is no scientific information in
terms of floricultural point of view such as, suitable variety, yield, quality etc. Keeping the above points
in view present investigation was taken up with following objectives that to distinguish the
performances of different cultivars and to explore as potential cut flower genus in Bangladesh.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The pot experiment was conducted at horticulture farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University,
Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh during the period of October, 2010 to December, 2011 to distinguish the
performances of different Heliconia cultivars and explore as promising cut flower. Five Heliconia
cultivars (Plate 1) were used in RCBD (Randomized Complete Block Design) with three replications.
Healthy and uniform suckers with 2-3 leaves were planted in pots of 35cm 35cm size were used in the
experiment. Pot mixture was prepared by mixing of well decomposed cowdung, soil and sand at
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Title code: IJSAT/ 130122
proportion of 1:1:1. The flower stalks were harvested after unfolding of the bract was complete. Flower
stalks were cut with three leaves at base early in the morning while still turgid (Donselman and
Broschat, 1986). Three flower stalks were selected randomly from each cultivar and placed in a 200 ml
transparent flower vase containing 100 ml only tap water. flower stalk ends were cut time to time and
tap water was changed in every alternate days. Number of days until the lower bract wilted was
recorded to evaluate the vase life. Collected data were statistically analyzed using MSTAT-C program.
Mean was calculated and analysis of variance for each of the characters was performed by F test
(Variance Ratio). Difference between treatments was evaluated by Duncans Multiple Range (DMRT)
test at 5% level of significance (Gomez and Gomez, 1984).
Table 1. Morphological traits of five Heliconia cultivars (based on Berry and Kress, 1991).
Cultivars Common name Flower type Bract color
H. psittacorum Pink blush Errect Pinkish green
H. angustifolid Scarlet torch Errect Orange
H. acuminata Golden torch Errect Yellow
H. aurantiaca Red devil Errect Red
H. rostata Lob-star-claw Drooping Red with yellow border

Pink blush Scarlet torch Golden torch Red devil Lob-star-claw

Plate 1. Heliconia cultivars underPlate

study1. Heliconia cultivars under study.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Plant height
All cultivars are statistically differed significantly with respect to plant height recorded in (Table 1).
Cultivar Lob-star-claw had the tallest plant (102.0 cm) while shortest (71.0 cm) recorded in Red devil.
Similar opinion was put forwarded by Sultana and Hassan, 2008.
Shoots per plant
In terms of shoots per plant all cultivars are statistically differed significantly recorded in (Table 1).
Cultivar Golden torch had maximum (9.0) shoots per plant while minimum (5.0) recorded in Scarlet
torch and Red devil.
Bracts per shoot
In case of bracts per shoot all cultivars are statistically differed significantly recorded in (Table 1).
Cultivar Lob-star-claw had maximum (12.0) bracts per shoot while minimum (5.0) recorded in Pink
blush, Scarlet torch and Red devil. Similar opinion was put forwarded by Berry and Kress (1991).
Bracts length
All cultivars are statistically differed significantly with respect to bracts length recorded in (Table 1).
Cultivar Golden torch had maximum (15.8 cm) bracts length while minimum (7.0 cm) recorded in Lob-
star-claw. Similar opinion was put forwarded by Berry and Kress (1991).
Stalk length
In terms of stalk length all cultivars are statistically differed significantly recorded in (Table 1). Cultivar
Lob-star-claw had maximum (71.0 cm) stalk length while minimum (48.0 cm) recorded in Red devil.
Similar opinion was put forwarded by Criley (1990).
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Title code: IJSAT/ 130122
Flowers per shoot
In case of flowers per shoot all cultivars are statistically differed significantly recorded in (Table 1).
Cultivar Lob-star-claw had maximum (34.0) flowers per shoot while minimum (21.0) recorded in Red
devil. Similar opinion was put forwarded by Sultana and Hassan (2008) and Berry and Kress (1991).
Vase life
All cultivars are statistically differed significantly with respect to vase life recorded in (Table 1).
Cultivar Scarlet torch and Golden torch had maximum (12.0 days) vase life while minimum (8.0 days)
recorded in Lob-star-claw. Similar opinion was put forwarded by Jaroenkit and Paull (2003); Criley
(1990) and Powell (1991).
Table 1. Floral behavior of different Heliconia species.
Plant height Shoots/ Bracts Bract length Stalk length Flowers
Germplasm Vase life
(cm) plants /shoot (cm) (cm) /shoot
Pink blush 93.0 b 7.0 b 5.0 b 12.6 ab 65.0 b 29.0 b 10.0 b
Scarlet torch 79.0 d 5.0 c 5.0 b 11.7 b 50.0 d 25.0 c 12.0 a
Golden torch 84.0 c 9.0 a 7.0 ab 15.8 a 55.0 c 30.0 b 12.0 a
Red devil 71.0 e 5.0 c 5.0 b 11.5 bc 48.0 e 21.0 d 10.0 b
Lob-star-claw 102.0 a 6.0 bc 12.0 a 7.0 c 71.0 a 34.0 a 8.0 c
CV (%) 12.0 6.6 6.3 7.7 10.4 5.5 1.6
LSD (0.05) 2.3 1.8 2.3 2.1 1.6 1.4 1.5
In a column means having similar letter (s) are statistically identical and those having dissimilar letter (s) differ significantly as
per 0.05 level of probability

CONCLUSION
Heliconias, now widely grown in Bangladesh as ornamental plants, have been identified as promising cut
flower. Significant differences among cultivars were found for all of the attributes evaluated. All five
cultivars performed acceptably well as cut flower and could be explore and popularize as commercial cut
flower in Bangladesh after further verification responding various factor as well as cultural practices.
REFERENCES

Berry, F. and J. Kress, 1991. Heliconia Identification Guide. Smithsonian Institution Press, Print.
Broschat, T. K. and H. Donselman. 1983. Production and postharvest culture of Heliconia psittacorum flowers in
south Florida. Proc. Fla. State Hort. Soc. 96: 272-273.
Criley, R. A. 1990. Production of Heliconia as cut flowers and their potential as new potted plants. Hort. Digest
(Univ. Hawaii) 92: 1-7.
Cronquist, A. 1981. An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants. Columbia University Press, New
York, pp. 1-1262.
Donselman, H. and T. K. Broschat. 1986. Abstract: Production of Heliconia Psittacorum for cut flowers in South
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Fisher, J. B. 1976. Uses of heliconia as cutflower. Canadian J. Bot., 54: 578-592.
Gomez, A. K. and A. A. Gomez. 1984. Statistical Procedures for Agricultural Research, 2nd Ed., John Wiley and
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Technology. 13(2): 259-266.
Ong, C. R. 2007. "Heliconia Basics." Green Culture Singapore. March 2007.
<http://greenculturesg.com/articles/mar07/mar07_heliconia.htm>.
Powell, J. 1991. Growing Heliconias for cut flowers. N. Terr. Austrl. Dept. Primary Ind. and Fisheries Agnote. p. 442.
Sachs, R. M. 1977. Landscaping with heliconia. Hort Science., 12: 220-222.
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