The Crane Flower

I took these photos today, in our garden.

Perhaps you can see why it’s commonly called the Crane Flower.  I’m open to correction, but I think the plant is also known as a Strelitzia or Bird of Paradise.

It’s a monocotyledonous plant. The Encarta dictionary says that the floral parts occur in multiples of three. This picture shows clearly the three parts of the flower. One part of the flower looks like the long beak of a crested crane, and the other two parts look like a crane’s crest – hence it’s common name. 

A picture in Wikipedia shows a male Greater Bird of Paradise with its wings displayed. Have a look - perhaps you'll see a similarity between the flower and the bird. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird-of-paradise

After some days, the flower becomes tatty. Here’s a photo of a second Strelitzia plant in our garden. These flowers need to be cut.

It’s a fairly common site in the area in which we live, and although some of the characters in my children’s stories probably won’t have seen these flowers, those in areas with a reasonable water supply will have. 

[I’d love to hear from anyone who is familiar with Southern Africa and would be interested in doing some illustrations for my stories.]