An Exotic Flower

The HELICONIAS (sorry, I really do not know how you call this flower in English, maybe with the pictures you can know).

The Heliconias are herbaceous perennial whose size varies between 3.94 inches to almost 33 feet. Just like all living things, Heliconias have a cycle of existence: once they have grown, flourished and multiplied. The plant begins to show signs of tiredness, as if it already served its time and dies, but that is when a new stem sprouts that replaces the old one and can reach a height from 4 feet and almost 33 feet as mentioned before. The bracts are the most visible organs of the Heliconia generally of primary colors or metallic.


This plant is very elegant, and it is always interesting. Most Heliconias grow below 600 meters in the wetlands of the tropics, with Colombia the country with more varieties, it is said that nearly 100 approximately.

The Heliconia, in fact, it is a genus that includes more than 100 species of tropical plants, originating in South America, Central America, Pacific Islands and Indonesia. Heliconias are known by several common names such as: platanillo, bird of paradise, or lobster grinding down the colorful bracts that surround the flowers.

 Well, I hope you like Heliconias by now, they are definitely an exotic flower, full of color, and unbelievable forms.

The Orchid

The orchid is the national flower of Colombia. Also, orchids are one of the most valuable assets of Colombia and well known around the world. This beautiful type of flower specifically the Cattleya Trianae is the one that represents Colombia.

According to a legend from Latin mythology, the son of a faun and a nymph, known as Orchis, after his death, came to life in the form of an orchid. From this moment, men who want to seduce a woman, usually give her a bouquet of orchids from which arises an uncontrollable passion.
The orchid is considered a very effective aphrodisiac although it is unclear if its wonderful effects is due to its delicious aroma, their strange and exotic way or just the legend.

Many orchids grow wild: on the rocks, on trees, and on the ground. In Colombia, orchids appear from the sea to the high mountains, at altitudes between 300 and 3850 meters, flowering during the months of March and April.

Orchids are distinguished from other plants or flowers by some floral characteristics. Flowers open on any other flower stalks, however, during development, the stem is rotated 180 degrees, so that the mature flower is upside down.The three sepals and two of the three petals are usually similar in color and shape, however, the remaining petal called lip, is always different from others: bigger, different color and shape.

 

In the late nineteenth century came the great European orchid boom. The boatloads of these were western countries' plants to Europe for the courts of the nobility. However, orchids are not aristocratic plants, and are not very expensive and difficult to grow. Maybe they were in the nineteenth century, but today when you travel to Colombia, especially in the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, and Valle del Cauca, runs into precious orchid with familiar names such as: Josephine, beetles, Rod San Jose, May Flower, grow in post or open their petals to the roofs of mud.

More About Colombian Flowers

I hope you enjoy it!

Is There More to Colombian Flowers Besides Their Charming?

You bet there is!
Each of the Colombian producers of flowers have their regular workers. These workers have their own families, the kids of these workers are put in a hard position.
As mentioned in other posts, Colombia as the second exporter of flowers of the world needs hard workers all year around. However, the life of any Colombian workers it is not as easy as for others workers in many different countries as United States. The average Colombian employee works an amount of 50 to 60 hours even though it is supposed to be 40. For a country like Colombia with a bad economy, people cannot have the privilege to work 40 hours and support their families with a minimum wage equivalent to $295 dollars, almost impossible to survive.
Therefore, parents take any jobs available in order to provide to their families. It is a risk their willing to take, even though it means no family time nor time for anything else. As the last Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe Velez used to say "es hora de trabajar, trabajar, y trabajar," which in English is "it is time to work work, and work."
I recommend watching the following video and listen to the kids of the flower business employees.