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Strelitziaceae
Bird-of-Paradise Family
By: George
Rogers
This small
family is related to the Banana Family (Musaceae) and to the broader assemblage
once called the Scitamineae: bananas, heliconias, birds-of-paradise, and
gingers. The Strelitziaceae have large bananalike leaves and bilaterally
symmetrical flowers largely enclosed in long, horizontal boat-shaped bracts.
These are plants of Africa and of Madagascar. The species cultivated in our area
are:
1. Plants
<10’ tall; flower-bract combinations gold and blue…Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia
reginae)
1. Plants >
10’ tall; flower-bract combinations white or white and blue…2
2. Bracts
arranged flatly in a single plane, greenish; flowers white…Traveler’s Tree (Ravenala
madagascariensis)
2. Bracts
radiating 3-dimensionally, not in a flat plane; flowers blue and white…White
Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia nicolai)
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