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Strelitzia
Also called Bird Of Paradise Flowers, Birds Of Paradise
Strelitzia is a genus of five perennial species from South Africa, with S. nicolai and S. reginae the common houseplants; the entry covers the genus generally. Give them full sun or very bright light, and they bloom reliably once mature and well-rooted.
Strelitzia () is a genus of five species of perennial plant, native to South Africa. It belongs to the plant family Strelitziaceae. A common name of the genus is bird of paradise flower/plant, because of its likeness to the birds-of-paradise. In South Africa, it is commonly known as a crane flower.
Two of the species, S. nicolai and S. reginae, are frequently grown as houseplants. It is the floral emblem of the City of Los Angeles and is featured on the reverse of the South African 50-cent coin.
They are pollinated by sunbirds and blue-faced honeyeaters, which perch on and drink from the spathe. The weight of the bird when standing on the spathe opens it to release the pollen onto the bird's feet, which is then deposited on the next spathe it visits. It is believed to be the only genus of plants pollinated by the feet of birds. Strelitzia species lack natural insect pollinators; in areas without sunbirds, plants in this genus generally need hand pollination to successfully set seed.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Strelitzia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
