''Strelitzia caudata'', commonly known as the mountain strelitzia or wild banana, is a species of

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...

-like ''

Strelitzia ''Strelitzia'' is a genus of five species of perennial plants, native to South Africa. It belongs to the plant family Strelitziaceae. The genus is named after Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom, who was born a princess of the house of Meckl ...

'' from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

from the

Chimanimani Mountains The Chimanimani Mountains are a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The mountains are in the southern portion of the Eastern Highlands, or Manica Highlands, a belt of highlands that extend north and south along the internati ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

south to

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Mala ...

, the

Northern Provinces The Northern Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 27 Southern Africa. The area has the code "TVL". It includes the So ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

and

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its ...

(Swaziland). It was first described in 1946 by

Robert Allen Dyer Robert Allen Dyer (21 September 1900 Pietermaritzburg – 26 October 1987 Johannesburg) was a South African botanist and taxonomist, working particularly on Amaryllidaceae and succulent plants, contributing to and editing of ''Bothalia'' and ''F ...

in ''Flowering Plants of Africa'' , Volume 25, Plate 997. The specific epithet caudata means chopped, this refers to an appendage of a sepal, which occurs only in this species. It is one of three large banana-like ''Strelitzia'' species, all of which are native to southern Africa, the other two being '' S. alba'' and '' S. nicolai''.

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.

Habitat

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

References

Flora of Mozambique Flora of Zimbabwe Flora of Swaziland Flora of the Northern Provinces Plants described in 1946 Strelitziaceae {{Zingiberales-stub