The flowers are pretty and round. They are bright yellow. The fruit of the Cotton Tree is a brownish capsule that opens at maturity and exposes the seeds that are covered with a white fibre, the cotton.
In general, Heliconias are evergreen in the Tropics and warm Subtropics, like zone 10. Further north, upper zone 9 and lower zone 8, they may be frozen back to the ground each Winter but survive to resprout the next Spring.