Strelitzia reginae

Called many flattering names, including crane flower, bird of paradise flower and geel piesang (yellow banana) in Afrikaans, Strelitzia reginae is almost always noted, if not admired. The leaves angled like satellite dishes suggest how easy it is to find new names for the plant.

This unusual plant, a monocotyledonous perennial, is a South African endemic but by now a famous export product, a cherished vegetation buddy of people the world over.

The long-living stemless plant consists of a clump of large elliptic leaves usually veering at a jaunty angle, like teenagers on a street corner. Evergreen, the leaves are stiff, elliptic in shape on long, sturdy petioles, sometimes reaching over 1,5 m in height.

The sequencing of flowers in one spathe may be observed in this photo: The old one on the right is dry and brown, the young one on the left has raised bright orange sepals from the front end of the boat-shaped covering that is the horizontal, pointing spathe, the flower base.

The species distribution is fairly near the coast in the eastern part of the Eastern Cape from Humansdorp to King Williams Town and near the Fish river, to some extent also in KwaZulu-Natal.

The habitat is rocky grassland near the coast and dry riverine scrub. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Gledhill, 1981; www.plantzafrica.com; http://redlist.sanbo.org).