Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia reginae with droplets from last nights rain. It rained last night and the air smells oh so fresh (for once). No smog in sight. Just droplets of rain on everything, that wonderful, moist, clean air and a fresh, bright new crop of bird of paradise! In the background is my trusty fig tree...
According to our friends at Wikipedia, Strelitzia reginae is indigenous to South Africa where it is pollinated by Sunbirds! When the Sunbird perches on that bright blue spathe to drink the nectar, the spathe opens to cover his/her feet in pollen. How's that for co-evolution. It means that they don't get pollinated here very often. No Sunbird, no pollination. The scientific name, Strelitzia, commemorates Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of King George III.
4 comments:
You could pretend you are a Sunbird and do the dirty for this noble plant! I love using them in floral work. And the multiple flowers tucked inside is always a super surprise.....
I could not resist, the curious thing is I live in an area formerly (-1918) known as the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Stelitz (http://martininbroda.blogspot.com/2008/07/ber-die-fortdauer-von-namen.html).
I wish you a good and pleasant thanksgiving.
Whoa! What a lovely Thanksgiving surprise. It is a gorgeous bloom, isn't it? I grew up in Florida, where gardens occasionally show these proudly. Sadly, one will never be in my garden because I have the Black Thumb of Death. That, and I live in Indiana now.
Thank you, sweetie.
Those are my favorite plants of all time. I bought seeds my first time in Hawaii (my honeymoon 2003) and the plant is still alive and growing fine, but no flowers yet :(
On another note, my impending move to Hawaii has been moved back a few years, my husband will be going to Law School most likely in Arkansas due to his ex wife putting a custody hearing off until it will be too late for him to accept a spot at U of H. Very sad news for me, but the good news is that now I can keep my tropical plants! Plus we have a dog and a cat that now have very silly and unnessasary (esp. for the darn cat) microchips as was required to aviod the quarentine program!
So now I will be looking for Aloha in all the wrong places for a while longer to!
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