Strelitzia

From: Paul Tyerman tyerman at dynamite.com.au> on 2000.09.07 at 14:27:44(5355) > >I understand that there's a dwarf form of Strelitzia reginae which grows less than 3 feet high. Does anyone know of any sources? (I probably don't have enough room for yet one more plant, but why should I let that stop me...) > Les There definitely is a smaller form of Strelitzia. Think it is somwhere between 3 and 4 feet when in flower, definitely shorter in the leaves. MUCH smaller than the normal form. We have it here in Australia at least. Cheers. Paul Tyerman +More Canberra, Australia. USDA equivalent - Zone 8 mailto:tyerman@dynamite.com.au

From: hermine hermine at endangeredspecies.com> on 2000.09.07 at 19:05:48(5368) At 07:27 AM 09/07/2000, Paul Tyerman wrote: > > > >I understand that there's a dwarf form of Strelitzia reginae which grows +More >less than 3 feet high. Does anyone know of any sources? (I probably don't >have enough room for yet one more plant, but why should I let that stop me...) > > Les It is all over southern California and is used as an underplanting for washingtonia palms in MALLS. it is not hateful. my own favourite Strelitzia is the one with virtually no leaves. "Quiver of arrows" it is called in its native haunts. some forms have NO LEAVES at all. hermine

From: Steve Marak samarak at arachne.uark.edu> on 2000.09.08 at 03:37:23(5379) This has been niggling at me all day, so I dug among a few books this evening. As usual, there is some disagreement on naming, and most of my references are probably out of date anyway. Graf's Exotica, series 3 9th edition, has pictures on pp. 1182-1183 of (among other things) S. reginae, S. parvifolia, and S. parvifolia juncea. (Hortus III seems to consider them all forms of S. reginae.) Graf's descriptions in the back perhaps shed a little light: S. reginae: "... trunkless, compact, clustering ... to 5 ft high, with stiff-leather, concave, oblong, bluish-gray leaves with pale or red midrib ..." S. parvifolia: "... the Small-leaved Bird-of-paradies; about 4 ft. high, very similar to S. reginae ... recognized by its leaves which are reduced to very small, spoon-shaped, thin blades at the tips of tall stiff, reed-like stalks; ..." S. parvifolia juncea:"... the Rush-like strelitzia, from the Port Elizabeth area; very curious form which I was amazed to find because it has no leaves at all; just a dense cluster 4-5 ft. high, of spiky tufts of cylindrical, fleshy but rigid, reed-like grayish stems tapering to a needle-point; ..." Whether any of these is the "dwarf" variety I don't know, but the last of the three is the one I for which I searched a bit. I'd still like to try it, and I see now that an Internet search turns up several seed sources, so maybe I'll get around to it this time. Steve +More -- Steve Marak -- samarak@arachne.uark.edu

From: Lester Kallus lkallus at earthlink.net> on 2000.09.08 at 15:30:40(5381) The dwarf strelitzia is probably newer than Graf's most recent book (which is getting a bit dated now, anyway). The ginger listserver noted a while ago that there was a dwarf form. No one there was able to help me locate one. That's why I tried here. I even received a few responses indicating that people had one - but still no one knows where they're being sold. It sounds like it would be a perfect plant to put into tissue culture (assuming it's not patented, that is). I still hope to locate one. If anyone ever finds a source, please do let me know. If anyone has one and can spare an offset, I'll jump at the chance. Les +More At 10:37 PM 9/7/00 -0500, you wrote: >This has been niggling at me all day, so I dug among a few books this >evening. As usual, there is some disagreement on naming, and most of my >references are probably out of date anyway. > >Graf's Exotica, series 3 9th edition, has pictures on pp. 1182-1183 of >(among other things) S. reginae, S. parvifolia, and S. parvifolia juncea. >(Hortus III seems to consider them all forms of S. reginae.) > >Graf's descriptions in the back perhaps shed a little light: > >S. reginae: "... trunkless, compact, clustering ... to 5 ft high, with >stiff-leather, concave, oblong, bluish-gray leaves with pale or red >midrib ..." > >S. parvifolia: "... the Small-leaved Bird-of-paradies; about 4 ft. high, >very similar to S. reginae ... recognized by its leaves which are reduced >to very small, spoon-shaped, thin blades at the tips of tall stiff, >reed-like stalks; ..." > >S. parvifolia juncea:"... the Rush-like strelitzia, from the Port >Elizabeth area; very curious form which I was amazed to find because it >has no leaves at all; just a dense cluster 4-5 ft. high, of spiky tufts of >cylindrical, fleshy but rigid, reed-like grayish stems tapering to a >needle-point; ..." > >Whether any of these is the "dwarf" variety I don't know, but the last of >the three is the one I for which I searched a bit. I'd still like to try >it, and I see now that an Internet search turns up several seed sources, >so maybe I'll get around to it this time. > >Steve > >-- Steve Marak >-- samarak@arachne.uark.edu

From: Eric.Schmidt at ci.orlando.fl.us (Eric Schmidt) on 2000.09.08 at 15:31:51(5383) The Royal Horicultural Society "Index of Garden Plants" lists several cultivars of S. reginae inluding 'Humilis' (='Pygmae'). It describes it as "...dwarf, to 80cm, closely clump-forming; lvs. ovate-oblong, short-petioled; flowers disproportionately large, short stalked." Also, the "leafless" form is S. reginae var. juncea. If anyone is in Orlando there are nice specimens of this planted at Animal Kingdom in the Africa section by the Safari ride. Some of the clumps are quite large, 3-4 feet tall. The first time I saw them, there were no flowers and I thought they were a species of Sanseveria until I looked close. Eric Schmidt +More Orlando, FL. -----Original Message----- Marak Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 11:37 PM To: Multiple recipients of list AROID-L Subject: Strelitzia This has been niggling at me all day, so I dug among a few books this evening. As usual, there is some disagreement on naming, and most of my references are probably out of date anyway. Graf's Exotica, series 3 9th edition, has pictures on pp. 1182-1183 of (among other things) S. reginae, S. parvifolia, and S. parvifolia juncea. (Hortus III seems to consider them all forms of S. reginae.) Graf's descriptions in the back perhaps shed a little light: S. reginae: "... trunkless, compact, clustering ... to 5 ft high, with stiff-leather, concave, oblong, bluish-gray leaves with pale or red midrib ..." S. parvifolia: "... the Small-leaved Bird-of-paradies; about 4 ft. high, very similar to S. reginae ... recognized by its leaves which are reduced to very small, spoon-shaped, thin blades at the tips of tall stiff, reed-like stalks; ..." S. parvifolia juncea:"... the Rush-like strelitzia, from the Port Elizabeth area; very curious form which I was amazed to find because it has no leaves at all; just a dense cluster 4-5 ft. high, of spiky tufts of cylindrical, fleshy but rigid, reed-like grayish stems tapering to a needle-point; ..." Whether any of these is the "dwarf" variety I don't know, but the last of the three is the one I for which I searched a bit. I'd still like to try it, and I see now that an Internet search turns up several seed sources, so maybe I'll get around to it this time. Steve -- Steve Marak -- samarak@arachne.uark.edu

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