Strelitzia Nicolai ~ Giant Bird of Paradise

When we moved in and I found out what this "palm" was...I was very happy. These flowers are one of my favorite things about the back yard. I love the purple tongue...





Although we often call these geckos...they are really an Anole. They seem to come in several colors and this guy was not happy I was following him around taking his picture. He seems to like the backyard swing. He sits up top and chases all the other Anoles off his perch.

So just how big is your BoP? My neighbors had one when I lived in Hawaii. Loved the orange and indigo blooms

We have one that is roughly 7-8 ft tall. It has a couple smaller plants growing beneath it I want to let grow so there are two or three of them blooming at a time. The orange bird of paradise here are more of a bush..and if they didn't get so big I'd have one of those too.

How extraordinary Connie. I never knew that these colors existed (especially the purple) in bird of paradise. I like this ................AL

Connie, you just made me research the Strelitzia family! I have a small plant of what is supposed to be the Strelitzia alba (Strelitzia augusta) which is also a white form of the Bird of Paradise.

Here is what I found:
Strelitzia augusta and nicolai are 2 species of the same family and both are the white members of the family. the difference being the flower for the S. augusta is also white with a light blue "tongue" and it sits in a purplish bract while the S. nicolai has a greenish bract.

Based on the above description, I would say your tree seems to be S. augusta. I hope mine too grows to bloom as nice as yours. Mine is still fairly very young (probably 3 feet tall, I got it 1 year back). Still a long way to go, I guess

Very nice here in Malaysia we got blue, orange and white.

Originally Posted by zainal abidin

Very nice here in Malaysia we got blue, orange and white.

Love the Strelitzia but unfortunately only blooms in our highlands. I have mine for more than 10 years but has never flowered in the lowlands.

Zain, can you post the picture of the blue variant? eager to see how it looks!

Originally Posted by zainal abidin

Very nice here in Malaysia we got blue, orange and white.

Love the color in this Bird of Paradise, Connie! I have never seen one this color before. So pretty!

cheers,
BD

we have quite a number imported and local species, but have never seen this. Thanks for posting.