Wild banana

Description

Strelitzia nicolai, commonly known as the wild banana or giant white bird of paradise, is a species of banana-like plants with erect woody stems reaching a height of 7–8 m (23–26 ft), and the clumps formed can spread as far as 3.5 m (11 ft). The 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in)-long leaves are grey-green and arranged like a fan at the top of the stems, similar to Ravenala madagascariensis. The inflorescence is composed of a dark blue bract, white sepals and a bluish-purple "tongue". The entire flower can be as much as 18 cm (7.1 in) high by 45 cm (18 in) long, and is typically held just above the point where the leaf fan emerges from the stem. Flowers are followed by triangular seed capsules. Strelitzia nicolai is among the few plants which have been verified to contain the pigment bilirubin, which is usually found in animals. Strelitzia nicolai is one of three larger Strelitzia species, the other two being tree-like S. caudata and S. alba. S. nicolai is restricted to evergreen coastal forest and thicket of eastern South Africa from the Gonubie northwards to southern Mozambique. It is also considered native to Mozambique, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and is reportedly naturalized in eastern Mexico (State of Veracruz). Strelitzia nicolai is commonly grown both indoors and outdoors as well, in the case of warmer climates. It prefers rich, moist soils with good drainage in full sun to part shade. The plant tolerates light frost. Propagation is via division of clumps, offsets and from seed. Plants require many years of growth before they begin blooming. In favourable conditions they self-seed freely, and their invasive root systems are best kept away from buildings. Strelitzia is a genus of five species of perennial plants, native to South Africa. It belongs to the plant family Strelitziaceae. The genus is named after Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom. A common name of the genus is bird of paradise flower/plant, because of a resemblance of its flowers to birds-of-paradise. In South Africa, it is commonly known as a crane flower and is featured on the reverse of the 50-cent coin. It is the floral emblem of the City of Los Angeles; two of the species, S. nicolai and S. reginae, are frequently grown as houseplants. The species S. nicolai is the largest in the genus, reaching 10 m (33 ft) tall, with stately white and blue flowers; the other species typically reach 2.0 to 3.5 m tall, except S. caudata, which is a tree of a typically smaller size than S. nicolai.