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Monday 24 March 2014

Picture This #243 ~ Flower Power

Anders, what a beautiful banner! I love how you have taken that photograph of the sky and its contrasts.

Two pictures only for me and hopefully will be able to get around and see all your lovely flowers.

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This is a flower much like the well-know Bird of Paradise, but it grows on a bigger plant and is white and blue instead of orange and blue.
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Another view. My neighbors think I am crazy running around taking pictures of all their flowers.


12 comments:

  1. Oh wow! I've never seen one with these colors, Benni! Great shots!

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    1. I hadn't either until we started coming down here. They are all over the place, but higher up on the trees. Thanks!

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  2. Hi Benni !! Wasn't sure if you were taking part this week. Great shots of this exotic flower. They must be related to the Bird Of Paradise, they look too much like it not to be!!

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    1. Thanks Mitch. Yes, I looked them up when I first saw them and they are related, but I don't remember the scientific names.

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  3. hi bennie, I've never seen flowers like those. they are really interesting. ciao ciao

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    1. Grazie, Nico, maybe they would be in Sicily or the Mediterranean islands, I don't know.

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    2. and they are a South African Variety, fancy that? *smile*

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  4. Hi Benni! Birds of paradise is a nice name to give the flowers you beautifully captured. We call them 'alba strelizia', while those of common colour we just call 'strelizia', but now I think 'birds of paradise' is a name more suitable than ours.

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  5. lol I do that to and they think I am a little well of the wall
    love these they are so col

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  6. Blue Birds of Paradise, now that is a new one. I have plenty of the other variety growing here, could you beg a tube from your neighbour and send it? That would really be awesome, how interesting. Lovely shots.

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  7. My beloved husband says we have one of these, I just went to check. He is right, Strelitzia Nikolai

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strelitzia_nicolai

    trelitzia nicolai, commonly known as the Giant White Bird of Paradise or Wild Banana are banana-like plants with erect woody stems reaching a height of 6 m (20 ft) and the clumps formed can spread as far as 3.5 m (11 ft).
    The 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) long leaves are grey-green and arranged like a fan at the top of the stems, similar to Ravenala madagascariensis. The inflorescence is composed of a dark blue bract, white sepals and a bluish-purple "tongue". The entire flower can be as much as 18 cm (7.1 in) high by 45 cm (18 in) long and is typically held just above the point where the leaf fan emerges from the stem. Flowers are followed by triangular seed capsules.
    Distribution[edit]

    This species is one of three tree-like Strelitzia species, the other two being S. caudata and S. alba. S. nicolai is restricted to evergreen coastal forest and thicket of eastern South Africa from the Great Fish River northwards to Richards Bay.

    Never too old to learn something new. *grins*

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