PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY OF BIRD OF PARADISE

Dr Anuradha Sane, Senior Scientist, IIHR

Bird of Paradise

Bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae Banks) is one of the most well known ornamental
plants in the world.

It is highly attractive with orange and blue flowers. The flowers are long lasting and
excellent for indoor display.

It is an evergreen perennial plant grown in the regions having moderate climatic

conditions.

It is indigenous to South Africa, where it grows wild.

The genus Strelitzia belongs to Strelitziaceae and there are five species in the genus.

Strelitzia reginae is the most popular orange flowered species commonly known as
Bird of Paradise.
Species

S. nicolai It resembles the much larger travelers tree. The flowers and spathe are
much larger.
The inflorescence has reddish brown bracts with white flowers and blue tongues.

S. alba (S. augusta)-It is a large plant reaching five meters high. The inflorescence
has two spathes and produces white flowers on short pedicles. Petals are hooded.

S. juncea-A most unusual and much sought after species that does not develop a leaf
blade, only the bluish leaf stalks remain. The beautiful orange and blue flowers look
identical to those of the regular bird of paradise.

S. kewensis-It is a garden hybrid between S. augusta and S. reginae. It grows up to1.5

meter height. Flowers are pale watery yellow resembling S. reginae and the petals are
hooded like that of S. augusta.

There are not many uniform cultivars available commercially.

Botany, Inflorescence and Pollination

The plant is trunk less, compact and clustering but slow growing with fleshy roots.

Leaves grow from a crown at the base of each plant and radiate out in a fan.

So each clump is somewhat flattened.

The leaves are borne on a long stalk that sometimes reaches up to 60 cm length.

The oblong leaf blades are stiff and leathery, concave and bluish green with a pale
midrib.

Roots are fleshy, large and strong growing.

The flowers are orange and blue emerging from the hard beak like spathe,

The flowers are large and 6 - 12

The flowers, which emerge one at a time from the spathe

Perianth - three brilliant orange sepals and three bright blue petals. Two of the blue
petals are joined together to form an arrow like nectar.

When the birds sit to have a drink of nectar, the petals open to cover their feet in
pollen
Stomatal studies

Upper surface-3 stomata/cm2

Lower surface-l 570/section

The interval between leaf emergence and flower stalk emergence 186 days (range of
173 to 204 days).

The interval between flower stalk emergence and flower cut -----64 days (54 to 74
days).
Floral biology

Anthesis starts in the evening by 4.30 PM and completes by 10 AM next morning

when yellow petal is unfurled.

Yellow petals open first. First floret remains fresh for 4 days.on 4th day only blue petal
fades but orange still remains fresh

Stigma secrtion is there upto 4.30 PM. Stigma is receptive before blue petal is visible.

Pollen size-1.45m.; No. of ovules/capsule-75 (25 attached to each locule). No. of

seeds/capsule-7 to 30

Flowers pollinated from 10 AM to 12.30 PM have set fruits.

Colour-black, round with orange tuft of hairs.

Bilirubin is an orange-yellow tetrapyrrole produced from the breakdown of heme by

mammals and some other vertebrates.

Recently, bilirubin was discovered in the arils of Strelitzia nicolai, the Bird of
Paradise, which was the first example of this molecule in a higher plant.

Subsequently, we identified bilirubin in both the arils and the flowers of Strelitzia
reginae, the Bird of Paradise Flower.

In the arils of both species, bilirubin is present as the primary pigment, and thus
functions to produce colour.

Growth habit

It is an easy plant to grow in the garden. It is a slow growing

Clump forming plant and does well in full sun to semi shade.

It survives with very little water once established. They respond well to regular
feeding.

It is wind resistant but sensitive to cold temperature.

Propagation

Propagated from seed, divisions of clumps and tissue culture. The

In nature, birds pollinate flowers.

To increase seed set, the flowers are hand pollinated by placing pollen on the tip of
stigma.

It takes four to five months for seeds ripen.

Fruit is dehiscent capsule with many seeds.

Seeds have hard seed coat.

Before sowing, scarification with Sulphuric acid for 5 minutes is done to break seed
coat (acid scarification) to hasten germination. Seeds have to be soaked in water with
orange tuft of hair intact overnight.

Germination is a slow process and takes 1-3 months depending on the season. Before
sowing, the bright orange tuft of hairs attached to the seed is removed.

Seeds are sown in seed trays filled with well-drained soil medium at a depth of 1.5
times the size of the seed. A constant temperature of 25o C is most suitable for
germination. Seedlings with 2-3 leaves are used for transplanting.

Efficacy of different priming treatments on germination enhancement and seedling

growth of BOP.

Different priming treatments were imposed on mature seeds (mechanical scarification,

acid scarification with concentrated H2 SO4, H2O2, KNO3, GA3 and cold
temperature).

Seeds in 1% H2O2 for 3 days (54% germination) yielded better results followed by
soaking seeds in 100 ppm GA3 (50% germination) and seeds kept in zip lock cover
for 5 days after soaking them in water overnight (50% germination).

Vegetatively propagated by Fans. Multiplication rate by this method is 0.5-1.5

divisions per branch per year.

Division usually requires at least three months to generate new roots.

Clump divisions usually flower faster than the plants grown from seed.

Tissue culture

Tissue culture attempts of this plant have failed due to the oxidative browning of
explants. Wounded tissues release polyphenolic compounds which are detrimental to
further development of explants. The optimal collaboration of a dark incubation
period together with a phenol reducing agent would increase the potential of Strelitzia
spp. (Strosse et al., 2009).

the induction of somatic proembryos (SPE) using cotyledon node fragments from
plantlets 30 d old.

After five months of incubation, explants cultivated on dark conditions produced SPE
in Murashige and Skoog medium at 100 and 50% strength, supplemented with 2,4-D
(0.5 to 2.0 mg L-1), sucrose (30 g L-1) and activated charcoal (0.1 g L-1). The SPE grew
and formed structures 5-6 mm long, whose distal tip presented a root meristem-like
cellular organization which lacked a quiescent centre. The absence of a shoot
meristem in the SPE prevented the further in vitro development of proembryos.
(Arzate Fernandez et al., 2008)

low light energy and high temperature promotes flower abortion.

Planting

Best time for planting is August-September months.

Plants grown in partial shade will be taller and have larger flowers.

In full sun, plants are smaller and flowers are on shorter stems.

It tends to produce flowers along the periphery of the plant.

Soils

It is tolerant and thrives well in most soils.

It prefers rich loamy soil and plenty of organic matter.

Climate

It flowers well both in full sun or slightly shady situation.

Flower production through out the year .

Photoperiod has no effect on flowering.

Low light intensity caused by shading reduced flowering.

Each leaf normally bears one floral initial in its axils

A model of flower stalk development indicated the mechanism of seasonal flower

production in the increasing phase of the model; low temperature (14 to 16 C)
retarded floral differentiation and subsequent elongation prior to flower emergence.

A temperature threshold of 27C was the source of seasonal flower production in the
decreasing phase of the model by causing flower bud abortion.

Dissection of flowering fans revealed sequences of flower bud abortion which

occurred during June to October, and accounted for low flower production during
winter.

Manuring and Fertilization

Application of 110:35:70 kg NPK/ha/Yr + 50% FYM in four split doses in the months
of January, April, July and October enhances the growth and flowering in Bird of
paradise.

Spraying plants with solution containing 6 g super phosphate and 3 g potassium

nitrate per litre of water at an interval of 10 days was found effective.

Irrigation

Liberal watering during growing season will encourage plants to grow

In summer, irrigation once in 3-4 days is practiced. In cooler months of the year, soil
should be irrigated in water once a week.

Mulch

Pests

The use of organic mulch such as leaves, bark, wood chips, polythene sheet and saw
dust can be used to conserve moisture.

The Bird of Paradise has very few pest and disease problems, but scales, aphids, white
flies and mealy bugs cause some damage.

Scale is the main pest problem. Small, brown scales ares seen infesting, usually on the
bottom of the leaves or along the stems.

These can be controlled with systemic insecticides such as Rogar (2 g/l)).

Diseases

Diseases affecting include bacterial wilt and root rot.

Root rot is a seed-borne fungus that can be controlled by soaking the seeds in water
for one day at room temperature followed by a 30-minute dip in water heated to
135F.

For controlling bacterial wilt, drench with Streptomycin sulphate-3000ppm + Blitox3g/l.

Harvesting and post harvest handling

The older the plants become, the more flowers they produce.

Four year old plant produces 42 flower spikes wheras five year old produces 50 spikes
per plant per year.

Flowers are cut when first floret opens.

Cutting the flower stalk at an angle exposes a greater surface through which water is
absorbed.

Immediately after harvest of the inflorescence, base of the stalk should be kept in a
bucket containing 4 depth of clean water or floral preservative containing 10%
sucrose +300 mg/l aluminium sulphate or citric acid.

The cut ends of the stalk should be plugged individually or bunch of ten stalks with
cotton saturated in water or the preservatives.

Pulsing cut stems with 500 micro M thidiazuron (TDZ) for 24 hours at 20
degrees C extended floret longevity by 2.3-3.2 days (20-30%).

Pulsing with TDZ plus 20% sucrose increased the number of florets that opened from
1.0 (control) to 2.0 per inflorescence.

Exposing stems to 1 micro l/L ethylene for 24 hours at 20 degrees C reduced floret
longevity by 5.5 days (43%) relative to control stems.

Pre-treatment with inhibitors of ethylene action (500 nl/L 1-methylcyclopropene or

0.2 mM silver thiosulfate) for 6 hours at 20 degrees C reduced the ethylene-related
loss in floret life

Packaging and Storage

The blooms are covered with news paper and packed in CFB boxes for long distance
transport or long term storage.

Removing two cm of the base of the stalk under water on alternate days immediately
after dry storage or transport and also in vase would increase water uptake and
enhance the vase life.

Inflorescence can be stored at 10C upto 7 days followed by vase life of 7-10 days by
adopting the above practices.

Short-term (7 days) storage at 0 degrees C did not cause chilling injury to bracts and
florets and reduced the loss in vase life associated with storage at 10, 20 or 25 degrees
C.

Storage at 0C for 21 and 28 days resulted in chilling injury.

Shipment at low temperature to improve the postharvest performance of bird-ofparadise inflorescences.

(Mcnish et al., 2010)