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Strelitzia nicolai Regel & Körn.

Giant white bird of paradise tree (en)

Species

Angiosperms > Zingiberales > Strelitziaceae > Strelitzia

Characteristics

Perennial shrub, 3-6 m high; stem simple, with tuft of leaves at apex. Leaves petiolate, oblong to ovate, up to 1.5 m x 600 mm, usually rounded at base or rarely cordate, shiny. Peduncle 300-450 mm long. Bracts lanceolate, glaucous. Spathes rarely up to 5 in sequence, claret, glaucous, 400-450 mm long, exuding mucilage; apices green, attenuate. Flowers light mauve to white. Sepals white-tinged with mauve towards base; lower shorter, navicular, keeled at base; upper linear-lanceolate, ± keeled below; perianth tube up to 30 mm long. Petals unequal; lower navicular; margins inflexed and meeting over centre; upper cuspidate. Stamens with slightly coiled filaments. Ovary triangular. Flowering time Oct.-Jan. Seeds with tuft of orange hairs.
More
A tree up to 9 m tall. Often they occur in clumps. They sucker from the base. The leaves are 1.8 m long and 0.6 m wide. They are normally tattered into strips by the wind. The flower head is 45 cm long. It has grey, blue, white and pink colours. Several flower sheaths grow out of one large flower sheath. This large flower sheath can be 30 cm long and deep red or blue. The fruit is a 3 lobed woody capsule. It is 5-7 cm long. The woolly layer around the seed is bright orange.
Life form perennial
Growth form
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention evergreen
Sexuality -
Pollination -
Spread -
Mature width (meter) 4.0 - 8.0
Mature height (meter) 8.0 - 12.0
Root system -
Rooting depth (meter) -
Root diameter (meter) -
Flower color
Blooming months -
Fruit color -
Fruiting months -
Nitrogen fixer -
Photosynthetic pathway -

Environment

A tropical plant. It needs moderate moisture and a seasonally dry climate. It needs a fertile, humus-rich, well-drained soil. It needs full sun. It can tolerate salt spray. It is damaged by frost. It suits hardiness zones 10-12. Melbourne Botanical Gardens. In Queen Sirikit BG.
Light 4-9
Soil humidity -
Soil texture -
Soil acidity 2-8
Soil nutriment -
Hardiness (USDA) 11-12

Usage

The seeds are used as food.
Uses environmental use food gene source medicinal
Edible seeds
Therapeutic use -
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Plants can be grown from seeds. Plants can also be grown from suckers.
Mode divisions seedlings suckers
Germination duration (days) 30 - 180
Germination temperacture (C°) 21 - 23
Germination luminosity -
Germination treatment soaking
Minimum temperature (C°) -
Optimum temperature (C°) -
Size -
Vigor -
Productivity -

Images

Strelitzia nicolai unspecified picture

Distribution

Strelitzia nicolai world distribution map, present in Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:798185-1
WFO ID wfo-0000561967
COL ID 52X85
BDTFX ID 122062
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN) Link
Wikipedia (FR) Link

Synonyms

Strelitzia nicolai Strelitzia quensonii Strelitzia alba subsp. nicolai
WorldFloraDB 2024