Type : Mauvaise application du nom basé sur: Origine inconnue [côte caraïbe du Venezuela?], cultivé à Vienne, Jacquin s.n. (
t. 48-
49 in Jacq., Pl. Hort. Schoenbr., 1:
23-
24. 1797 [fide TL-2,
3255][
Heliconia bihai (L.) L. 1771, voir Andersson 1981; désigné comme lectotype de "
Heliconia humilis Jacq. 1797" par erreur par L. Andersson, Nordic J. Bot., 1(6):
765. 1981]).
D'après L.Andersson (Taxon, 33(3):
524[-525]. 08/1984): "In 1797, Jacquin made the recombination
Heliconia humilis, citing
M. humilis
Aubl. in synonymy. Erroneously but generally, this has been considered a
new name (e.g. Index Kewensis, Andersson, 1981: 765). Jacquin provided a
detailed description and an excellent illustration of a plant quite
unrelated to
H. psittacorum. The taxonomic interpretation of this Jacquinian plant may be debated, but it clearly belongs to the sect.
Heliconia of subgen.
Heliconia, whereas
H. psittacorum belongs to subgen.
Stenochlamys Baker. I consider the Jacquinian plant as a Venezuelan lowland morphotype of
H. bihai (L.) L. (Andersson, 1981: 768-769). The impact of a good illustration is powerful: the name
H. humilis
has ever since been used in the Jacquinian sense, the only exception
being Aristeguieta (1961), who used it for another species of sect.
Heliconia, viz.
H. stricta
Huber (cf. Andersson, 1981: 776). The morphotype illustrated by Jacquin
is commonly cultivated in tropical gardens, mostly under the name "
Heliconia humilis Jacq." (cf., for example, Graf, 1963, 1978)."
