Heliconias gone wild

[RainForestt Robert]

I have two swatches of heliconias that have gone wild.  I want to totally eliminate them so I can plant palms etc.  How do I eliminate them so that the rhizomes don't keep coming back?

Robert

[DoomsDave]

I had the same problem, and I (along with Palmazon) dug them out.  That was a HARD job, no two ways.

Hmm.  Bet you've got a lot of them?

Try glyphosate (Roundup).  It's an herbaceous plant, so RU should be effective.

Hmm.  I'll also ask around . . ..

dave

[RainForestt Robert]

Thanks Dave.  I was also thinking about something systemic.  I wonder how long before I can get to planting?

Robert

[Jeff Searle]

(Trinidad! Bob @ Nov. 25 2006,16:50)

QUOTE

I have two swatches of heliconias that have gone wild.  I want to totally eliminate them so I can plant palms etc.  How do I eliminate them so that the rhizomes don't keep coming back?

Robert

Robert,

  Start digging. I had to remove a few clumps in my yard at times. It was some work granted, but I just sharpened the ole shovel and started popping them out. I have used round-up hundreds of times, it kills most, but not all. I'm not sure if you spray the leaves(which it will most likely kill it back dramatically) kill the whole plant. Don't be surprise if the rhyzomes underground come back up. And again, if you dig them up with a shovel, and then later you have a couple that re-sprout, just dig them up as soon as possible. You will finally have them out.

  Jeff

[Tyrone]

I'm intrigued. Which Heliconias are you all having trouble with. No one, I mean not a single person has Heliconia's growing here in Perth and I've just planted some rostrata's that I've germinated from RPS. The reason for no one growing them is totally strict quarantine which prohibits plant imports but allows seed imports, and as no one germinates anything there are no plants. The idea of my rostrata running wild has actually got me quite excited. I think it's a good thing. I've given mine perfect soil and watering in a really protected spot, so if you guys say it will run riot I'm a happy camper. It's better than Canna's running everywhere.

Which species were you guys growing then, especially Dave?

regards

Tyrone

[Jeff Searle]

Well there comes a point in time, when a heliconia clump gets so big that it starts growing into other plants close by. Thats when you periodically have to dig some clumps out to keep it in check. Most varieties are tight clumpers, and are not a nightmare to control. But some of the varities that are known to be "runners" can be a real problem. I don't plant any of these. And...if you do, you will find out in a year or so what a high maintance plant exactly is.

 Jeff

[Tyrone]

Dave, what species of Heliconia were you growing?

regards

Tyrone

[junglegalfla]

I'll bet he has H. psitts. They are obnoxious runners.

JG

[Jeff Searle]

(junglegalfla @ Nov. 27 2006,12:39)

QUOTE

I'll bet he has H. psitts. They are obnoxious runners.

JG

Thats what I was thinking.

  Jeff

[RainForestt Robert]

Here is a photo of one of the heliconia clumps.

I wanted to plant a bismarck palm close by.  So taking Jeff's advice I decided to dig the rhizomes.  That was some tough work!!  Exhausting!  After an hour I had only removed about 15 percent.  We have small, red ants here in Trinidad whose sting I consider highly annoying.  They did not take kindly to their homes being removed.  Also the soil was a heavy, wet clay.  

Removed heliconia rhizomes.

This definitely will be an ongoing project.

[Jeff Searle]

Bob,

       Yep, thats a nice big clump. I knew it would be some work, but thats what you gotta do. It will be worth it.

 Jeff

[aussiearoids]

commercial growers up here just mow over the top of old Psitt beds , way to much work digging up 100m x 2m row !!

[junglegalfla]

How does mowing eliminate them? The rhizomes are still there planning their next attack

[epicure3]

Mine do the same thing. Even in the winter they still grow. They are heliconia schiedeana and they take over everything.

[Dave-Vero]

But hummingbirds like them.

[DoomsDave]

(Tyrone @ Nov. 27 2006,07:54)

QUOTE

Dave, what species of Heliconia were you growing?

regards

Tyrone

It was the most common, scheidiana (sp?) with red flowers edged in yellow.

They are pretty when they bloom, no doubt about it.

But, well, they're like the Huns.  "Destroy!  Everything!  Invade!  Everywhere!  Muah ha ha ha ha!"

Seriously.

dave

[Tyrone]

(Dave from So-Cal @ Nov. 29 2006,23:58)

QUOTE

(Tyrone @ Nov. 27 2006,07:54)

QUOTE

Dave, what species of Heliconia were you growing?

regards

Tyrone

It was the most common, scheidiana (sp?) with red flowers edged in yellow.

They are pretty when they bloom, no doubt about it.

But, well, they're like the Huns.  "Destroy!  Everything!  Invade!  Everywhere!  Muah ha ha ha ha!"

Seriously.

dave

Dave, I need to get me some of them. Will they grow in full shade etc

regards

Tyrone

[iwan]

Oh, to have the problem where Helliconia is invasive!  Will accept your cast-aways as they are pretty much annuals here.

[Dave-Vero]

This doesn't apply to Robert's runamuck heliconia patch, but there's some fascinating evolutionary biology involving heliconias in the Caribbean.  Here's a news story.  Even more revelations were published in 20003.

Science 21 July 2000:

Vol. 289. no. 5478, pp. 369 - 371

DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5478.369

News of the Week

ECOLOGY:

Food Fight Drives Evolution

Kathryn Brown*

Even in the rainforest, couples squabble over dinner. When it's time to dine on St. Lucia, an island in the West Indies, male purple-throated carib hummingbirds horde the nectar from the short, sweet flowers of a plant called Heliconia caribaea. Female caribs are stuck with the less productive blossoms of H. bihai. But new research shows that both sexes make the most of this jungle buffet--thanks to evolution.

On page 441 of this issue, evolutionary biologist Ethan Temeles and students at Amherst College in Massachusetts showcase these hummingbirds as a rare example of food supply--in this case, flower shape--spurring the evolution of a sexual dimorphism, or a feature that differs between males and females. On St. Lucia, female caribs sport bills a third longer and twice as curved as their male counterparts--one of the most extreme bill differences between the sexes in any hummingbird species. In the paper, Temeles links these "whoppingly dimorphic bills" to the specific flowers the male and female caribs frequent. "This is the best example we've got of male and female animals evolving to use different food," Temeles says.

Other researchers call the study impressive. "This is delightfully strong evidence that ecology sometimes drives differences between males and females," remarks evolutionary biologist Richard Shine of the University of Sydney in Australia. Larry Wolf, a behavioral ecologist at Syracuse University in New York, adds that researchers have long thought that carib bills might closely match their favorite flower's shape. "Now someone has actually gone out and shown it," Wolf says. "That's pretty neat."

Across the wild kingdom, of course, animals compete for food. And Charles Darwin long ago suggested that food competition could cause, or maintain, different male and female hummingbird bills. But the scientific evidence has remained scanty. Most evolutionary studies explain male-female differences by sexual selection. Male peacocks, for instance, grow flashier plumes than females in order to attract mates. By comparison, few studies have shown that the sexes might, when faced with a new environment, evolve differently in order to divvy up food. One unappreciated example may be mosquitoes: In some species, male mouthparts pucker perfectly to slurp nectar, whereas female mouthparts are specialized for sucking blood. Some water snakes, too, have varying head sizes for swallowing lunch.

The purple-throated carib makes a prettier case study, with its small, black body tucked inside iridescent emerald wings. "Sitting in the rainforest," says Temeles, "you see this gorgeous glittering green just shooting through the canopy." And he's had plenty of time to see it. Last summer, Temeles and three students hiked through four rainforest reserves on St. Lucia. To see whether male and female caribs dined differently, they spent 4 weeks watching the birds at distinct patches of Heliconia plants. A pattern soon emerged: 15 of 15 males fed on patches of H. caribaea, whereas 11 of 18 females chose H. bihai instead. The birds are the sole pollinators of these plants.

To learn how closely the carib bills and their favored flowers fit, the team measured both. The male birds sport short bills that curve down at a slight 15º angle. Their preferred flower, H. caribaea, averages just 38 mm long and curves out at about 21º. By contrast, the bills of female caribs are 30% longer than male bills and curve down twice as much, at a 30º angle. Accordingly, their favored flower, H. bihai, averages 44 mm long, with a 31º curve. What's more, Temeles says, both male and female caribs feed more quickly--and presumably efficiently--at the flower that best matches their bill. Bolstering the case, notes Temeles, in some rainforest areas, another plant has essentially replaced H. caribaea, again attracting male birds with its similarly shaped flowers.

How, exactly, did the hummingbirds evolve such pointed differences? Temeles speculates that thousands of years ago, when hummingbirds first arrived on St. Lucia, the larger, dominant males probably favored H. caribaea, a plant that bears more flowers. That left females with the less effusive H. bihai. Over time, Temeles says, the bills of both male and female caribs have adapted to fit their flower of choice, enabling the birds to make the most of their food source. "Food is really running the show," he suggests, although he cautions that biologists can never really know what, exactly, kick-started a chain of evolutionary events so long ago.

There's more to learn from these birds and blossoms, Temeles says. Does this hummingbird-Heliconia relationship hold up season after season? What about on other islands? And how have the flowers also evolved, welcoming caribs with just the right curves? Hunting for answers, he intends to return to the West Indies next summer.

Kathryn Brown is a free-lance writer in Alexandria, Virginia.