Mistaken Me

Arrangement# 50

The composition I do today is entitled ' Mistaken Me'  for a reason. I had this particular parrot flower (Heliconia psittacorum) which I collected a few months ago and today bore its first infloresscene.  It has dull orange bracts and green tipped.  This inflorescence is much smaller than the other two parrot flower varieties that I added in to the display.One having very bright orange colours and the other dark yellow colours. When I discovered the dull orange variety flowering today, my enthusiasm increased and I spent sometime looking for more facts.  I found these interesting facts:

• The word 'Heliconia' is derived from 'Mount Helicon" which was the Greek Seat of the Muses.
• Heliconia belongs to the ' Musaceae ' family i.e. the Banana family and though related to the 'Bird of Paradise ' they are not of the same species since the Bird of Paradise' belongs to the Strelitzia.
• Heliconia psittacorum  have canna like leaves and therefore wrongly referred to as 'Japanese Canna'. For some others, they just call it simply ' False Japanese Canna'

A CU view of bright orange Parrot Flower( Heliconia psittacorum)

A MS view of dark yellow Parrot Flower ( Heliconia psittacorum)

The red fruits from the curry leaves tree are added to suggest the idea that my earlier venture in planting this new heliconia variety at my farm has borne fruits.

Hopefully from now on I will not mistake the heliconia with the strelitzia. Else it's just like getting confused between a 'parrot' with the 'bird of paradise'.

In their silence, they seem to tell me....Don't Mistake Me Again :)