Re: Strelitzia

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

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references are probably out of date anyway.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
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