Strelitzia caudata, commonly known as the mountain strelitzia or wild banana, is a species of banana-like Strelitzia from Africa from the Chimanimani Mountains of Zimbabwe south to Mozambique, the Northern Provinces of South Africa and Eswatini (Swaziland). It is one of three large banana-like Strelitzia species, all of which are native to southern Africa, the other two being S. alba and S. nicolai.

Description

Growing up to 8 metres tall, it has a leafless woody stem and has a fan shaped crown. The leaves are 2 by 0.6m, greyish-green in colour and are arranged in two vertical ranks. The seeds are black with a tuft of bright orange hairs.

Taxonomy

Strelitzia caudata was first described in 1946 by Robert Allen Dyer in Flowering Plants of Africa, Volume 25, Plate 997. The specific epithet caudata means "with a slender tail"; this refers to an appendage of a sepal, which is prominent in this species.

Habitat

It usually grows in dense clumps, in areas of montane forests and is found between rocks on steep grassy slopes.