The fan

Strelitzia, a native of South Africa, is one of the most unusual and attractive members of the banana family. This popular South Florida plant bears a unique flower that resembles a brightly colored bird in flight, giving it the common name, Bird-of-Paradise. Two of the blue petals are joined together to form an arrow-like nectary. When the sunbirds sit to drink the nectar, the petals open to cover their feet in pollen. Pretty clever for a plant, don’t you think?

“Came down the sky

To sit amidst the garden greens

Bird-of-Paradise”

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Haiku by Meenakhsi Madhur

~ by Isabella on March 25, 2007.