Strelitzia juncea (Narrow-leafed Bird of Paradise) - This evergreen perennial slowly forms ever larger clumps of rhizomes from which emerge 4 to 5 foot long bluish-green narrow stalks which are actually leafless petioles - dramatically different from other Strelitzia because these stalks lack the expanded leaf at the end of the petiole. As on the more common bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae), from late fall through late spring appear orange and blue flowers that rise from reed-like, grayish leaf stalks that can reach up to 6 ft. tall. These stalks bear flowers of a most interesting floral structure with hard, beak-like green sheath-like bracts (technically a spathe) held singly at a right angle at the tip of the stalks. From this spathe, which can be 6 to 8 inches long and tinged on the upper surface with a pale pink color, emerge the flowers one at a time to display 3 brilliantly orange colored sepals and 3 blue petals, two of which are fused into a long arrow like structure and the third cupped downward as a nectary. Individual flowers last about a week and the spathe holds 5 to 7 flowers and so are showy over a prolonged flowering period. Plant in full sun or part shade and water only occasionally.
