Heliconia

Heliconia is the jungle in flower form. Its scarlet and yellow bracts stack up the stem like a row of lobster claws, each one a small cup that catches rain and holds it — tiny reservoirs that frogs and insects use as nurseries in its native tropical Americas.

In its home range, hummingbirds and heliconias evolved together, some bird bills curving to match a single species. In Hawaiʻi, where there are no hummingbirds, the plant simply grows for the pleasure of growing, spreading into broad banana-leaved clumps in valley shade.

Assembling this one is a study in structure: bold overlapping shapes, wax-bright color, and the cool green of a rainforest behind it.