The Bird of Paradise -- Strelitzia reginae

The Plant

            Strelitzia reginae, the Bird-of-Paradise. Botanically, it is one of the world’s most recognizable plant. The bright orange and blue spikes contrasting with the purplish sheath and dark green leaves are pleasing to the eye and are commonly found in artificial flower decorations or growing in greenhouses. But their native habitat is a bit more restricted than the local flower shop. Strelitzia reginae is native to southern Africa and Madagascar where it thrives in the near-tropical conditions of the rainforests there. Categorized into the World Wildlife Foundation, it is located in the tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests. It became a European oddity when shipped to become a part of King George’s Royal Botanical Garden in 1773. The name of the plant comes from the Queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Wikipedia (Strelitzia) 2008).

The native range of Strelitzia reginae is shown in blue on the map above.

            As part of the banana family, Strelitzia reginae features the large, flattened evergreen leaves that are a common characteristic found among many plants in that family. The plant itself can grow to be six and a half feet tall with a petiole of nearly 40 inches. Each “flower” is actually composed of several flowers, with three of the signature orange and blue petals each. Usually one or two are visible while the rest lie within the purplish bract. As one flower dies, another replaces it so that one compound flower can continue blooming for weeks.

Strelitzia reginae with the traditional blue and orange petals with the purple bract.

http://gallery.hd.org/_c/flowers/_more2005/_more04/Bird-Of-Paradise-flower-Lake-Atitlan-Guatemala-BG.jpg.html

            This flashy flower has a pollination technique that seems to fit with its name. Large reserves of nectar are located in glands behind the blue petals of the flowers and serve as a treat for small birds. As a bird lands on the bract to get a drink of nectar, it also pollinates the plant. The process is repeated on another flower and the pollen is exchanged, completing pollination. After fertilization, seeds form in small fruits that split open once they reach a certain size. The seeds are then exposed to the outside and are eaten by birds to be scattered and form new growths of the plant. As a perennial, the remaining plants keep returning each year with more added to the clump from underground stalks along with the seeds produced.

            Strelitzia reginae, and in fact the entire order of Zingiberales, is monocotyledonous, meaning that the plant only has one cotyledon or embryonic leaf in their seeds. Because of this, the plant has several characteristic traits that other plants (dicots, which have two embryonic leaves) don’t. Some of these traits include the already mentioned three-part flowers. Another noticeable trait is that the veins of the leaves are parallel rather than reticulate and the roots are adventitious and not radicle. Some other plants in this grouping that aren't included in the order of Zingiberales are wheat, onions and lilies (Wit 1967).

            The plant isn’t considered invasive, though it is commonly planted in warmer climates in gardens and as outside decoration. Because it forms close knit clumps when not seeding, the plant rarely spreads from its planted spot and is easily kept under control. Since the plant is perennial and does grow from root shoots, it is not required to replace the plant very often. Oddly, the plant produces more flowers when in crowded groups than when separated into smaller, more open groups.

Strelitzia reginae in the group formation it grows in, the large, paddle-shaped

leaves giving it away as a member of the banana family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:StrelitziaReginaePlant.jpg

The Ecology and Habitat

        The tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest biome is a very extensive biome. Aside from the usual habitat of Strelitzia reginae, Madagascar and Southern Africa, the biome also is found in South and Central America, the Caribbean, most of Indochina and Central Africa. The usual characteristics of this biome include high levels of rainfall annually with little change in the temperature. The dominant plant life is evergreen and semi-evergreen, some deciduous. The forest system is sorted into five layers, more than most biomes include, and generally the growth of plant life in these areas is very high. As the collective biome it is, about 35% of the world’s sub-ecosystems are included under the name of tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (WWF 2006).

       Interestingly enough, the sub-ecosystems of this biome are very diverse despite their common grouping. From the cloud forests of Borneo filled with smoke-like overhanging clouds and exotic epiphytes to the moist deciduous forests of South America where the leaves drop in the winter dry season, diversity can be easily found. The soil condition also varies, from leached and poor in nutrients to nutrient-rich peat bogs. The common links that bind all these ecosystems together are water and the usually high and stable temperatures found in all of them. Other than that, variety is everywhere, as the biome itself is known as one of the most diverse biomes on earth and not only in the botanical sense. Species of animals can be found here that are no where else on the planet, especially as in the case of many of the species found on Madagascar (Wikipedia (forests) 2008).

Cloud forest in Costa Rica

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Costa_rica_santa_elena_skywalk.jpg

       The biodiversity of tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests is largely endemic, meaning many of the species found in these ecosystems are found natively living no where else on Earth. Madagascar is a good example of one of these endemic ecosystems where an estimated 80% of the botanical and biological species found there are endemic to the island (Krupnick 2005). The Strelitzia reginae is almost seen as an endemic plant as it is only natively found in Madagascar and the southern tip of Africa and no where else in the tropical ecosystems. While it is easily grown in other warm climates, its native range is extremely limited to these areas.

        The main threat to the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest biome is the threat of deforestation.  Whether through the traditional slash-and-burn technique or through more conventional methods such as the use of power machinery or even the not-so-unusual accident, the forests are rapidly disappearing under the hand of man. The greatest effects of deforestation can be seen in South America, namely the Amazon rainforest, and in Madagascar. In order to make room for growing cities and more grazing land for livestock, acres of forestland are destroyed. It is estimated that only about 6% of the Earth’s surface is surviving rainforest and even that number will continue to decrease unless actions are taken to reverse the effects (Spiritus 2008).

           While many actions are being developed to stop deforestation and reclaim these tropical habitats, little can combat the

 already devastating numbers of destruction every year. Yet there is still hope to reverse the effects through many different plans and techniques, most of them relating to agriculture. Agroforestry, a technique commonly used by indigenous farmers, is the practice of controlled deforestation rather than complete and uncontrolled deforestation. Instead of completely clearing the

forest for cropland, only selected trees and plant-life are removed. Most remains untouched and continues to survive in a relative harmony with the farming lands. Natural procedures are used such as manual labor rather than mechanical labor which tends to need larger open spaces and more forest removed. Landscape recovery, or the replanting of native plant species on old, already used farmlands, is another major recovery practice. While it is hard to attain the same exact type of forest that previously cleared away from the area, the technique does offer more hope than just leaving the areas to become wastelands. But trees that used to grow in the area cannot just be replanted and expected to live. The area has to be reclaimed by starting from the beginning with secondary growth (grasses and shrubs) and then worked up to forestland (Anderson 1990). The third common practice is simply conserving the remaining forests. While in theory this is the easiest method to stopping reforestation, it is hard to completely conserve large areas of forests. Farmers disregard the conservation efforts and use the land anyway. Loggers do the same, taking trees from protected lands to make their living. When it all comes down to it, reversal of deforestation is easier said than done.

Bibliography

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[Anonymous]. Strelitzia reginae. Available from: http://www.floridata.com/ref/S/stre_reg.cfm Accessed 2008 Feb.

[Anonymous]. Strelitzia reginae image. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:StrelitziaReginaePlant.jpg Accessed 2008 Feb.

[Anonymous]. Strelitzia reginae image. Available from: http://gallery.hd.org/_c/flowers/_more2005/_more04/Bird-Of-Paradise-flower-Lake-Atitlan-Guatemala-BG.jpg.html Accessed 2008 Feb.

[Anonymous]. Cloud forest image. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Costa_rica_santa_elena_skywalk.jpg Accessed 2008 Mar.

[Anonymous]. Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forest Ecoregions. Available from: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/ecoregions/about/habitat_types/selecting_terrestrial_ecoregions/habitat01.cfm Accessed 2008 Mar.

[Anonymous]. Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_and_subtropical_moist_broadleaf_forests Accessed 2008 Mar.

[Anonymous]. Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests. Available from: http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/tropical-and-subtropical-moist-broadleaf-forests/ Accessed 2008 Mar.

Anderson AB. 1990. Alternatives to Deforestation. New York: Columbia University Press.

Berry F, Kress WJ. 1991. Heliconia: An Identification Guide. Farrand J, editor. Washington: Smithsonian Institutional Press.

Gilman EF. Strelitzia Reginae. Available from: http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/shrubs/STRREGA.PDF Accessed 2008 Feb.

Krupnick GA. 2005. Plant Conservation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Wit H. 1967. Plants of the World: The Higher Plants. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. INC.