Bird of Paradise flower at a Gulf Coast Florida strip mall.

[full_metal_ox]

Strelitzia reginae in bloom in a bedding of white seashells, with low-growing palms and (agave?) also visible in the flower bed, taken on 18 August 2023 at 15:43 US Eastern Daylight Savings Time:





The mature male specimen of Homo sapiens var. euroamericanus was a passerby and did not give his express consent, but the color of his T-shirt coincided so perfectly with the blue nectary petals of the flower that I decided to keep him; the measure I took to respect his privacy somehow completes the composition.)

Comments

[pauraque]

I love these! We had them growing in our yard when I was growing up in California.

[adafrog]

Pretty.

[full_metal_ox]

Glad you liked it.

[shirebound]

What an incredible flower. I haven't seen one since I lived in San Diego, CA.

[yourlibrarian]

These are such striking flowers. We had some in our yard when we still lived in Florida.

[turlough]

Such a spectacular flower! And yes, the mature male speciemen makes a perfect accent to it.

*

[minoanmiss]

makes a note to download these lovely pix

Re: *

[full_metal_ox]

Glad you liked it! And I don’t imagine you encounter a lot of these in Boston, other than in floral arrangements and indoor pots.

[yarnandglue]

Wow, what a cool plant!

[full_metal_ox]

It has an 80’s air: big, broad-shouldered, boldly angular, and neon-bright.

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Gorgeous flower, and I love the palette!

Re: Wow!

[full_metal_ox]

Several commenters have mentioned growing up with these plants in their gardens in California and Florida. Strelitzia reginae looked not even remotely like anything I was accustomed to seeing in Ohio—with the result that I tended to associate them with vacations, tropical adventures (Florida was where Flipper, Gentle Ben, and Jonny Quest lived!) and even science fiction.

(This affords a useful cue to remember that “exotic”, as the word has popularly come to be used, is a word that says more about you than about whatever you’re describing; it’s a matter of perspective rather than an innate and fixed attribute. Here’s Nigerian expat Tiktoker, dancehall musician, and prison activist Yinka “Lamb” Lawanson, at long last! getting to enjoy an archetypal exotic Global North experience, to the amusement of his American-born wife Taccara “Ling” Rae:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TPqdYupAkoY

This wasn’t deliberate on my part, but during the subsequent Kelly Clarkson interview, danged if Lamb isn’t clothed in Bird of Paradise flower colors!)