from the December 20, 2009 Newsletter issued from Hacienda Chichen Resort beside Chichén Itzá Ruins, central Yucatán, MÉXICO
HELICONIAS
Heliconias are among the most exotic-looking plants we have here. You can see a portrait of one above.

Heliconias, as you might guess from the broad leaf behind the flowering structure, is a member of the Banana Family. They're such gorgeous and unusual plants that many cultivars have been created and many hybrids made, so often it's hard or impossible to assign a species name to a plant. However, ours look very much like HELICONIA LATISPATHA which grows wild farther south and east of here where there's more rainfall, so that's what I'm guessing it is.

The orange structures aren't flowers, but rather boat- shaped modified leaves, or bracts, where earlier flowers arose "in the back of the boat" where the bracts attach to the zigzagging stem. Those black, shiny things are fruits, the flower period having long passed. A close-up showing the berry-like fruits is below: