Mountain Strelitzia
| Mountain Strelitzia | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Strelitzia caudata | ||||||||||||
| RADyer |
The mountain Strelitzia ( Strelitzia caudata ) is a species of the Strelitzia ( Strelitzia ) in the Strelitziaceae family . It is native to southern Africa .
description
Appearance and leaves
Strelitzia caudata grows tree-shaped as an evergreen, perennial , herbaceous plant that reaches heights of up to 6 meters. With its branched rhizomes it forms dense, clump-like stands. The unbranched, somewhat woody trunk is marked by the leaf scars. The leaves, which are distributed in two rows on the trunk and only form a kind of fan in the upper area on old plants, are clearly divided into long petioles and leaf blades. Their simple, smooth-edged, elongated, approximately leathery, shiny green to grayish leaf blades have a length of up to 2 meters and a width of up to 60 centimeters. The leaf blades tear in the course of time in the wind. Overall, they have a vegetative effect like banana plants.
Inflorescences and flowers
Strelitzia caudata can bloom all year round. There is a lateral, upright inflorescence stem. As with Strelitzia alba, there is a single inflorescence (in contrast to Strelitzia nicolai in which there are several partial inflorescences ). A horizontal or slightly upward standing, conspicuous, large, dark, boat-shaped bract (the so-called spathe) contains some flowers.
The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and threefold. The three bracts are very different in shape and color in the two circles. Of the three white bracts of the outer circle (often called sepals = sepals), the middle one is smaller than the lateral ones and has a slender appendage (the specific epithet caudata refers to this ). Of the inner three always blue (with Strelitzia nicolai they are mostly blue, very rarely white, with Strelitzia alba always white) bracts (often called pepals = petals) the upper one covers the entrance to the "nectar chamber"; the two large lateral ones are fused like an arrow and surround the stylus and the five fertile stamens . Pollination is done by birds.
Fruits and seeds
Woody, triple capsule fruits are formed, which open from their tip. The black, spherical seeds have a bright orange, woolly aril . Fruits can be present all year round.
Occurrence
Strelitzia caudata is originally found in southern Africa from Limpopo , Mpumalanga and Swaziland to the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe . It thrives in cool, moist mountain forests and in rocky locations that are rich in leaf litter. For example, it grows in forests on the south side of the Soutpansberg in Limpopo.
Systematics
Strelitzia caudata was first described in 1946 by Robert Allen Dyer in Flowering Plants of Africa , Volume 25, Plate 997. The specific epithet caudata means tailed, this refers to an appendage of a sepal, which occurs only in this species. In Moore & Hyypio 1970, Arnold & De Wet 1993 and Germishuizen 2003 the nomenclature within the genus Strelitzia was discussed and no synonyms were given for this species name .
swell
- Hamish Robertson: Strelitzia caudata at biodiversityexplorer - Iziko - Museums of Cape Town. (Section Description and Distribution)
- Braam Van Wyk & Piet Van Wyk Field Guide to Trees of Southern Africa (Field Guides) , Struik Publishers, 1997. ISBN 978-1868259229 ( Strelitzia caudata on p. 56)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harold E. Moore, Jr. & Peter A. Hyypio: Some Comments on Strelitzia (Strelitziaceae) , in Baileya , 17, 1970, pp. 65-75.
- ^ TH Arnold & BC De Wet (editors): Plants of southern Africa: names and distribution. , in Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Africa , No. 62, 1993.
- ↑ G. Germishuizen & NL Meyer (editor): Plants of southern Africa: an annotated checklist , In: Strelitzia , 14, 2003.