Strelitzia caudata

Strelitzia caudata, commonly known as the mountain strelitzia or wild banana, is a species of banana-like Strelitzia from Africa from the Chimanimani Mountains of Zimbabwe south to Mozambique, the Northern Provinces of South Africa and Eswatini (Swaziland).^[1] It is one of three large banana-like Strelitzia species, all of which are native to southern Africa,^[2] the other two being S. alba and S. nicolai.

Mountain strelitzia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Zingiberales
Family:	Strelitziaceae
Genus:	Strelitzia
Species:	S. caudata
Binomial name
Strelitzia caudata R.A.Dyer

Description

Growing up to 8 metres tall, it has a leafless woody stem and has a fan shaped crown. The leaves are 2 by 0.6m, greyish-green in colour and are arranged in two vertical ranks. The seeds are black with a tuft of bright orange hairs.^[3][4]

Taxonomy

Strelitzia caudata was first described in 1946 by Robert Allen Dyer in Flowering Plants of Africa , Volume 25, Plate 997.^[5][6] The specific epithet caudata means "with a slender tail";^[7] this refers to an appendage of a sepal, which is prominent in this species.^[6]

Habitat

It usually grows in dense clumps, in areas of montane forests and is found between rocks on steep grassy slopes.^[4]