These plants have bulbous roots which send up a clump of long, blade-like leaves. They vary from one or two feet in length to giants four to six feet long. The flowers are usually white, although sometimes tinged with dark red, and sometimes they have red stamens and stems. Many of these flowers are very fragrant. The Spider lilies are one of the staples of a Hawaiian garden. ([Plate XV])
THE BANANA FAMILY
Plants related to the Banana or Musa family, supply some of the most exotically shaped and colored flowers in Hawaii. The fruiting Banana does not have conspicuous flowers, but it grows as a graceful tree. The flowering stalk holds large dark red bracts under which are the small yellow tubular flowers. These point upward, as do the fruits into which they develop. The man in the fruit store hangs the bunch upside down.
A relative of the Banana which often attracts attention is the Traveller’s Palm, Ravenala madagascariensis, which is not, of course, a palm any more than a Banana is a palm. The Traveller’s Palm has the large leaves of the Banana, but they are arranged in one plane, like the sticks of a giant fan. Some other members of the Banana family are included in [Plate XV].
WHITE BIRD OF PARADISE
Strelitzia nicolai Thunberg
One of the most curious flowers in Hawaii is the White Bird of Paradise, so called, no doubt, because of its resemblance to its relative, the blue and orange colored Bird of Paradise. The resemblance, however, is not close enough for the white really to look like a bird, as does the orange. The white flowers grow out of a large boat-shaped sheath or keel, deep purplish grey in color, of which there are often two or three in a cluster. The flowers break out of the top of this sheath, one at a time, like white sails. There are three petals with a pale blue staminodium. The keel frequently is smeared with a gummy substance which must be removed before the flower becomes attractive for decoration.
The plant on which they grow is a small tree, with Banana-like leaves, arranged in several small fans on the order of the Traveller’s Palm. It is a member of the Banana family and a native of South Africa. ([Plate XV])
BIRD OF PARADISE
Strelitzia reginae Banks
The long stalk of this flower looks like the neck of a bird holding a head with long beak and a gorgeous crest. The “head” is a pointed sheath, greyish in color, and the crest of the bird is made up of the flowers lifting out of this sheath. There are about six of them in the sheath and since one pushes out every day or so, the cluster becomes larger and more colorful as it becomes older. Each flower has three pointed petals, brilliantly orange in color, and a blue staminodium shaped like an arrow head. The effect is unusual and exotic in the extreme. The flower is scentless.
The flower stalks grow slightly above the clump of stiff leaves which compose the plant. The leaves, which may be three or four feet long, are paddle shaped and heavy, their edges curving together. This plant, too, is a relative of the Banana and a native of South Africa.