Strelitzia

The name Strelitzia, given without a specific species, refers to a genus of five perennial plants native to southern Africa (mainly South Africa). These are rhizomatous plants forming large clumps of oblong to oval, grey-green, stalked leaves reminiscent of a banana plant. Their hallmark is a spectacular bird's-head-shaped inflorescence, a horizontal green and pink spathe from which brightly coloured flowers emerge one after another - orange and blue in the best-known species - resembling an exotic bird's head, hence the common name bird of paradise. They require full sun, rich, well-drained soil, and are frost-tender.