The flower of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal)
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The principal charge is a flower of Strelitzia reginæ, commonly known as the crane flower or bird-of-paradise flower. It is indigenous in the warm valleys of Zululand near the sea, but does not occur naturally in the old Natal Colony south of the Thukela River, although it is found in Transkei and as far south in the Eastern Cape Province as Humansdorp. It is nonetheless widely planted in gardens in Natal, as in other parts of the world – it is officially a symbol of the City of Los Angeles in California – and also grows wild, having seeded itself out of formal gardens.
At least one other species of Strelitzia is also found in KwaZulu-Natal, namely Strelitzia nicolai, which grows to a height of 6 m and is easily mistaken for a banana tree – in fact, its common name is Natal wild banana. When it blooms, it cannot be mistaken, since its flowers – at least twice as large as those of S reginæ – are clearly of the same form, although their colouring is cream where the crane flower is orange, and purplish-black where the crane flower is green and blushed.
The crane flower (S reginæ) was the official floral emblem of the Province of Natal.
