I've never noticed this before, but I had one double Bird of Paradise, thinking it was a fluke, when I noticed this evening that I had three at the same time. I thought I should take a quick pic of it, so here you go - maybe this is more common than I thought, but I have never seen double Birds like this.
Here's the close up - see, I'm not just having a few too many evening cocktails!
I have never seen this either - send pictures to the extension office and your local newspaper - very cool!
I am not to familiar with this group. I did a quick search and found a few people have reported similar double blooms before. Most seem to say that it is not stable. If this is not common I could see how it could be desirable to others or the market.
A few things could cause this effect one off hand maybe chemical treatment. It can sometimes take many years for some of these odd chemicals stop showing the effects on certain plants. Much like Philo Xanadu which was later found to be a true species. The large scale nurseries and wholesalers treat this plant with chemicals that keep it dwarf and miniture. It can take many years for the plant to grow out of the treatment. Naturally the plant can reach 4 feet tall or more with leaves much larger than what is commonly seen. It seems that odd mutations in flowers is a common effect of these treatments.
The next thing that would come to mind is if the plants is a polyploid this is usually the case for most double flowering plants. They have more genes than is needed so the instructions to make a flower are doubled this usually means a larger flower or in other cases double flowers. It can be hard to just visually tell if this plant is polyploided usually the leaves are thicker than normal and the sex organs maybe larger or deformed. If it keeps this trait going it would be safe to say it is polyploided.
This is a very old clump of Strel. When I inherited it along with the house (1927 bungalow), it was not in bloom, and was not receiving water, save for the 12 inches of rain we get each year. I began to water it, and it started to really take off. It sent up all of these spikes, that I assumed would be new leaves, but instead were a ton of flowers. It seems to be a pretty common Streltizia (these are planted all around my school as well), and shows nothing unusual in the rest of the plant, other than slightly dry edges from a lack of water.
I thought it could have been due to water stress.
What chemicals did they use on these kinds of plants to keep them small?
I have not been able to find what these chemicals are. I have a friend who knows much more of the treatment of these plants the difference between a common philo Xanadu and one with no chemical treatment is very different. I have heard of some selling a giant Xanadu but infact it looks to be a plant that has out grown the treatment. Gilberic acid is commonly used on plants to force flowers. This is good for use on plants that rarely if ever flower. It is also good in breeding. It causes many flower mutations. I am not sure if this chemical is being used or not in this treatment. I will see about digging up more info on this.
Attached is a photo of a Xanadu grown out from the treatment by my good friend Julius. Julius took the plant to the aroid show at Fairchild tropical gardens to show others what a xanadu looks like naturally rather than treated. I have to say I find that it looks much better like this but as you can see from the picture it looks to take years for it to get past the treatments.
I love the Xanadu philo. I've never seen it for sale here in Southern Calif. Is it more tender than the regular bipinnatifidum?
Thanks for the info on the Gilberic acid. Learn something new every day!
My BOP also has double & sometimes triple flowers. Usually, the 2nd flower will come out as the first is starting to die. I've noticed that the bigger blooms from the older part of the plant has more doubles than the smaller blooms from the newer parts. I'll get some pics tomorrow.
Jo-Ann
Acutally as far as I know double flowers on a bird are not that uncommon. They usually do it when there very well taken care of so you must be doing something right :) I had one for many years in a pot up here in the cold north and it would flower every March. You, who can grow them in the ground are very lucky!
I don't take it for granted, Planter56! I come from the Seattle, so I am thrilled to be growing all of these exotic plants! Most people here in S. California just think, "Oh, one of those plants." While I'm jumping up and down and kvelling over it!
As far as taking good care of it - I'm basically watering it right now. I guess I'll give it some bone meal and soft colloidal phospate eventually.
We have a lot of these plants in the Los Angeles area and I was paying close attention this week, and this double flowering phenomen is quite common... in fact, I noticed at least one double flower on almost every bush I looked at this AM... so not so rare afterall. Mine had several last year.
Very COOL!
I guess this is a case of having one in my front yard, looking at it closely, and seeing something I hadn't noticed before. I'm still glad I noticed!
Since your doing so well with the Bird Jungleman why don't you try Strelitzia parvfolia. You'll be different from everyone else in the neighborhood :) You might want to try Heliconias too :)
I want the Heliconia that Palmbob has - the schiedeana .
We are in the same Zone in S. Calif, but I daresay it is a bit warmer where he is in Tarzana, and possibly a bit cooler here on winter nights.
the best colonies of H scheidiana are all growing in Pasadena area (LA arboretum and Huntington)... you should have few problems
I love the look of the BoP and the Xanadu. I have both - my BoP is getting ready to bloom for the first time and my xanadu is hanging out in the sunrrom for the winter.
Jungleman, I am confused about your statement "...having a few too many evening cocktails". How is this possible? I've never heard of too many cocktails! ;)
Barb
