Strelitzias book launched by Durban Botanic Gardens Trust

A LAVISHLY illustrated study of the history, botanical politics and life-saving potential of one of South Africa’s most iconic flower families was launched by the Durban Botanic Gardens Trust last week.

The book, Strelitzias of the world, is the first book to investigate the life story of these iconic plants and makes a visual feast and a fascinating read.

Strelitzias are a small but far-flung family of eight main members – six in southern Africa, the traveller’s palm in Madagascar, and the big palulu in the upper Amazon.

From the martyrs of botany battling both disease and pirates while on the trail of strelitzias, this book profiles the adventures and history surrounding these extraordinary plants, investigates scientific controversies, discusses the plants’ use by people, mammals, birds and insects, and surveys their phenomenal impact on the international flower trade, where they are recognised as one of the world’s most beautiful blooms.

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Featuring more than 200 illustrations, including rare historic and contemporary plant specimens from international herbaria, Strelitzias of the world also forms a breathtaking showcase for dramatic botanical drawings and paintings of strelitzias by both the classical greats and a new set of drawings of southern African strelitzias commissioned by the Durban Botanic Gardens Trust from renowned KZN botanical artist Angela Beaumont and a dozen other South African botanical artists have donated use of their artwork.

Authors, Himansu ‘Snowy’ Baijnath and Patricia McCracken, both passionate about the subject, are excited about the finished product.

Snowy was born into a plant-focused family in Merebank, Durban and recalled the days of helping his father, a market gardener, put the flowers together for the early morning market. “I remember going fishing with my family, and the Strelitzia nicolai grew all over the area by the Umlaas River,” he said.

Snowy began studying botany formally at the University of Durban-Westville and was awarded a PhD at the University of Reading, researched while working at the Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is now an honorary research professor and senior research associate in the School of Life Sciences at UKZN and is an active researcher and supervisor of postgraduate students.

He started the project in 1996 through the Botanic Gardens Trust and said it was an exciting journey gathering data from people from all over the world.

“The reality was that I had a huge wealth of information, around 15 chapters, relating to a small botanic species, but my problem was how I was going to put it across. Patricia came on board in 2012 and then the other things started to explode!” he said.

Patricia began her first collection of local plants when she was nine years old and retained an interest in natural history while studying Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University and later while working in investment banking and then journalism.

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“Snowy delivered four boxes of academic papers to me and I thought it wouldn’t be a huge undertaking. It took me a month to go through it all and as Snowy’s collecting expanded beyond his outline, I came up with a new outline and discovered even more interesting information online. It was a goosebump moment when I was at my desk and downloaded the first 17th century account of a discovery of a strelitzia species in Madagascar,” said Patricia.

She said the strelitzia is considered one of the three most beautiful flowers in the world and one of the most exchanged in florists in the world.

“It is very much still a fashionable flower which is now globally iconic, but its home is here, and in a way, we are taking back ownership through this book,” she said.

“I’m totally blown away by this book. I couldn’t have worked with another scientist in putting it together. Patricia brought something special to the collaboration,” said Snowy.

The book costs R445 and is available through the Durban Botanic Gardens Trust on durbanbotanicgardens.org.za, Exclusive Books, both in store and online (https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9780994722126) and at Adams.

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