Re: Strelitzia

From: Lester Kallus lkallus at earthlink.net> on 2000.09.08 at 15:30:40(5381) 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 +More 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references are probably out of date anyway.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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