Strelitzia nicolai Seeds | Giant Bird of Paradise
LATIN NAME: Strelitzia nicolai
COMMON NAME: Giant Bird of Paradise
Plant Profile
Giant Bird of Paradise is a suckering evergreen that builds a thicket of arching stems five to ten metres tall, each crowned with a fan of long, leathery leaves that split in the wind. It is not a palm, though it is almost always taken for one; the resemblance is convergence, not kinship.
The flowers are the giveaway. They emerge from a stout, boat-shaped bract at the base of the fan, white petals above a dark blue tongue, and they open in winter and spring when little else in the subtropics is flowering. Coastal KwaZulu-Natal and Mozambique is home, on sand just behind the beach where salt spray and wind are constant.
Science & Biotechnology
Strelitziaceae holds only a handful of genera, all of them southern African or Madagascan, and Strelitzia is the best known. The flower is built for bird pollination: the weight of a sunbird landing on the blue petal opens the anther and dusts the bird’s feet, and the same mechanism deposits pollen on the next flower visited.
Seed sits inside a woody capsule and carries a bright orange aril, which is both a reward for dispersers and a barrier for propagators. The aril is rich in lipids and must be removed before sowing, since it invites mould in the humid conditions the seed needs. Germination is slow and uneven, a habit that matches a plant built to live for decades.
Uses & Benefits
In warm climates it is planted as a screen, a pool-side backdrop or a single architectural clump, and it tolerates coastal wind and poor sand better than most large foliage plants. Indoors it is sold as a houseplant, where it stays juvenile for years and rarely flowers, but the leaf effect carries the plant.
Cut flowers last well in water, and the leaves are used in floristry for structure. The trade is almost entirely clonal, since named forms must be divided to stay true; seedlings vary in vigour and in the size of the bract. In frost-free gardens the clump spreads by underground suckers and can be lifted and split in spring.
Growing from Seed
Soak the cleaned seed for two days in warm water, changing it once, then sow two centimetres deep in a gritty, free-draining mix at twenty-two to twenty-five degrees. Germination is uneven, running from four weeks to three months, so keep the pot for a full season before giving up on it.
Grow the seedlings on in full sun and lean compost, and expect the first fan to look modest. Flowers come at three to five years from seed, later in cool climates. In a pot, restrict the roots slightly to encourage blooming, and divide the clump every few years to keep it vigorous.
Our Take
The biggest of the bird-of-paradise clan, and the easiest to place: sun, sand, room and no frost. Patience at the sowing tray is the only real demand.
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