Strelitzia is a genus of five species of perennial plants, native to South Africa. It belongs to the plant family Strelitziaceae. A common name of the genus is bird of paradise flower/plant, because of a resemblance of its flowers to birds-of-paradise. In South Africa, it is commonly known as a crane flower.
Heliconia is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the western Pacific and Maluku in Indonesia. Many species of Heliconia are found in the tropical forests of these regions. Most species are listed as either vulnerable or data deficient by the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Several species are widely cultivated as ornamentals, and a few are naturalized in Florida, Gambia, and Thailand.
Ravenala is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants. Classically, the genus was considered to include a single species, Ravenala madagascariensis, commonly known as the traveller's tree, traveller's palm or East-West palm, from Madagascar. It is not a true palm but a member of the family Strelitziaceae. The genus is closely related to the southern African genus Strelitzia and the South American genus Phenakospermum. Some older classifications include these genera in the banana family (Musaceae). Although it is usually considered to be a single species, four different forms have been distinguished. Five other species were described in 2021, all from Madagascar: Ravenala agatheae Have. & Razanats., R. blancii Have., V.Jeannoda & A.Hladik, R. grandis Have., Razanats, A.Hladik & P.Blanc, R. hladikorum Have., Razanats., V. Jeannoda & P.Blanc, R. madagascariensis Sonn., et R. menahirana Have. & Razanats.
Borassus is a genus of five species of fan palms, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Papua New Guinea.
Musa is one of three genera in the family Musaceae. The genus includes 83 species of flowering plants producing edible bananas and plantains. Though they grow as high as trees, banana and plantain plants are not woody and their apparent "stem" is made up of the bases of the huge leaf stalks. Thus, they are technically gigantic herbaceous plants. Musa species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the giant leopard moth and other Hypercompe species, including H. albescens, H. eridanus, and H. icasia.
Saribus rotundifolius, also known as the footstool palm, is a common fan palm found in Southeast Asia. It is a member of the genus Saribus.
Strelitzia nicolai, commonly known as the wild banana or giant white bird of paradise, is a species of banana-like plants with erect woody stems reaching a height of 7–8 m (23–26 ft), and the clumps formed can spread as far as 3.5 m (11 ft).
Roridula gorgonias is an evergreen, shyly branching, upright shrub of up to about 1 m (3 ft) high, from the family Roridulaceae. It has awl-shaped leaves with entire margins, crowded at the tip of the branches. These are set with tentacles that secrete a sticky, shiny resin from the thicker gland at their tips, that catch many airborne items. At the center of the shoots appear inflorescences between July and October that consist of up to twelve flowers in spikes, each on a short flower stalk, with a bract at its base. The 5-merous flower is about 2½ cm (1 in) in diameter and has pinkish purple or white petals. The plants do not digest the trapped insects, but the bug Pameridea roridulae sucks out their juices and the plant absorbs nutrients from the bug's droppings. It is therefore considered a protocarnivorous plant. It is called Gorgons dewstick, fly bush or fly catcher bush in English and vliebos, or vlieëbossie in Afrikaans.. R. gorgonias is an endemic species home to the southwest of the Western Cape province of South Africa.
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). It was first described in 1946 by Robert Allen Dyer in Flowering Plants of Africa, Volume 25, Plate 997. The specific epithet caudata means "having a tail"; 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.
Corymbium is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family comprising nine species. It is the only genus in the subfamily Corymbioideae and the tribe Corymbieae. The species have leaves with parallel veins, strongly reminiscent of monocots, in a rosette and compounded inflorescences may be compact or loosely composed racemes, panicles or corymbs. Remarkable for species in the daisy family, each flower head contains just one, bisexual, mauve, pink or white disc floret within a sheath consisting of just two large involucral bracts. The species are all endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, where they are known as plampers.
Buddleja cordata is endemic to Mexico, growing along forest edges and water courses at elevations of 1500–3000 m; it has also naturalized in parts of Ethiopia. The species was first described and named by Kunth in 1818.
Babiana ambigua is a species of plant in the Iridaceae. It is endemic to the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is a geophyte, that appears from an underground corm every year and grows to a height of 5–8 cm (2.0–3.1 in) or occasionally up to 16 cm (6.3 in). Its leaves are pleated, hairy, lance-shaped, reaching higher than the inflorescence. The fragrant, mirror-symmetric, blue to mauve flowers, consist of six tepals merged into a tube at their base, but with free lobes at the top. The lower lateral tepals have whitish markings accentuated by a more intense blue line along their margin. Each flower is supported by two green bracts sometimes with a brownish tip, and the inner bract is divided entirely to its base. There are three anthers crowded to the dorsal side of the perianth and a style divided in three branches on top of a smooth ovary. Flowers can be found from late July at sea level to the end of September at high altitude.
Babiana nana is a species of geophyte of 6–15 cm (2.4–5.9 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has leaves that consist of a sheath and a blade that are at an angle with each other. The leaf blades are oval to almost line-shaped and have a left and right surface, rather than an upper and lower surface. The leaf blades are moderately pleated and covered in dense, soft hairs. The inflorescence contains two to six blue to violet or pale pink flowers adorned with white markings on the lower lip, and with three stamens crowding under the upper lip. Flowering occurs from late August to the end of September. The flowers emit a smell reminiscent of roses or violets.
Saribus brevifolius is a species of palm tree in the genus Saribus, which has only been found in the Kawe and Gag Islands in the archipelago of the Raja Ampat Islands, which lie off the north-west tip of the Bird's Head Peninsula in Indonesia's West Papua province. It was only discovered in 2002 during an expedition funded by The Nature Conservancy. The palm grows along the coasts of these two tropical islands on small ridges composed of ultrabasic rock. It is a moderately-sized fan palm with smallish and regularly segmented leaves and a smallish inflorescence in the crown. The inflorescence is not longer than the leaves, and split at its base into three main branches with one or more sub-inflorescences, these containing red flowers with pink anthers. The ends of S. brevifolius leaf segments are rigid and have a bifurcate cleft 1-4% of the segment length.
Dianthus albens is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae.
Dianthus bolusii, called the mountain pink or bergangelier, is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae.
Dianthus caespitosus, called the Karoo pink or koperangelier, is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae.
Dianthus thunbergii is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae.
Babiana vanzijliae is a species of geophyte of 4–12 cm (1.6–4.7 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has leaves that consist of a sheath and a blade that are at an angle with each other. The leaf blades are narrow, sword- to lance-shaped and have a left and right surface, rather than an upper and lower surface. The leaf blades are pleated and covered in velvety hairs. The inflorescence contains three to five pale bluish mauve to yellow flowers, but the lower lateral tepals are yellow becoming pale around the edges, and with three stamens crowding under the upper lip. Flowering occurs from early August to the middle of September. The flowers emit a strong scent. B. vanzijliae grows along the Bokkeveld Escarpment near Nieuwoudtville in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.
Babiana lobata is a species of geophyte of 12–25 cm (4.7–9.8 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has leaves that consist of a sheath and a blade that are at a slight angle with each other. The leaf blades are narrow, sword- to lance-shaped and have a left and right surface, rather than an upper and lower surface. The leaf blades are slightly pleated and hairless. The inflorescence contains seven to twelve bluish mauve mirror-symmetrical flowers comprising six tepals, with the lower lateral tepals yellow sometimes flushed mauve at their tips, and with three stamens crowding under the dorsal tepal. Flowering occurs in July and August. The flowers emit a faint acrid-metallic scent. B. lobata grows in part of the Richtersveld in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.
