Banana coloured and related Bird of Paradise

There are five species of Strelitzia, the Bird of Paradise Plant, and a few cultivars of the most commonly grown species, Strelitzia reginae, and some hybrids. That particular species has been described as the most popular horticultural perennial in the world. 

In its homeland of South Africa, the Bird of Paradise Plant is known as the Crane Flower, which also makes sense. It's a very bird-like bloom.

The botanical name honours Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, who both lived and in the case of Charlotte, died, in the house next to where I lived for two years in Kew Gardens, London. Her home is on the right, mine on the left.

Queen Charlotte's family was Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The species name 'reginae' means 'of the queen'.

Typically (as in the next two pictures), the outer layer of the flower (the three sepals) are orange, and the three petals are blue or purple.

In both variants (but seen most clearly in the top picture of this post), two of the petals are joined around the stamen (carrying the flower's pollen) to create something that looks like an arrow, and the third is a smaller dart-shaped object at the back.

In 'Mandela's Gold' cultivar, illustrated elsewhere in this post, the sepals are yellow. Flowers of this colour are apparently not uncommon in cultivation, including in Australia, but they need to be crossed with another yellow flower to produce seed true to form. 

In the 1970s Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, where these photographs were taken, began crossing a small collection of yellow-flowered plants in the nursery until in 1994 they released a new cultivar called 'Kirstenbosch Yellow'. In 1996, the name was changed - with permission - to 'Mandela's Gold'. 

As with all strelitzias, the flowers visited by bees but may be pollinated in nature by sunbirds (although there are reports of sunbirds being able to take nectar without pollinating the flowers).

The family Strelitziaceae includes two other genera, each with a single species, one from Madagascar and one from South America. The family as a whole is closely related to the banana family, Musaceae, which makes sense when you compare the vegetative plants. 

The typical flower of Strelitzia reginae will never go out of style though, and remains a stalwart of big, bold, tough landscapes everywhere. It also looks rather fetching in this logo of the South African National Biodiversity Institute, who run Kirstensbosch National Botanic Garden.