Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Strelitzia reginae
Common name
Strelitzia, Crane flower, Bird of paradise flower
Family
Strelitziaceae
Where found
Garden escape. Sydney area.
Notes
Introduced shrublike plant to 2 m tall. Leaves opposite each other, arranged in two ranks, making a fan-shaped crown. Leaves 25–70 cm long, 100–300 mm wide. Flowers with 3 brilliant orange petal-like sepals and three purplish-blue or white petals, 2 petals joined together to form an arrow-like structure with a central channel containing the stamens and style, the third (uppermost) much smaller. 4-6 flowers emerge one at a time from the stiff green and pink to orange boat-shaped spathe which is about 200 mm long. Seeds with an orange aril.
Wikipedia description: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strelitzia_reginae (accessed 3 May 2021)
Kewscience description: http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:798194-1 (accessed 3 May 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
