Isigude or Strelitzia reginae – Plant policy and global connections – Germany | England | USA | South Africa
Themed tours
Anna von Rath and Elisabeth Nechutnys, 2024
The long-stemmed leaves of the isigude or Strelitzia reginae resemble those of bananas, while its flower has delighted people worldwide for centuries: Its shape is reminiscent of a bird's head with bright orange-blue plumage. Therefore, it is also known as the bird of paradise flower, parrot flower or crane flower. The flower is iconic.
Native to South Africa, the Strelitzia's worldwide distribution is closely linked to colonial and global power dynamics: European botanists named the plant after the British Queen Charlotte of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Moreover, its cultivation and representative use are evidence of complex processes that have links to imperial expansion, research, diplomacy, the tourism and cut flower industry, local patriotism and nationalism.
Thus, the Strelitzia is political and this tour traces its significance in various places and for numerous people and the symbolic value attributed to it at different times.
References:
Baijnath, Himansu / McCracken, Patricia: Strelitzias of the World: A Historical and Contemporary Exploration, 2018.
Boehi, Melanie: Flowers are South Africa’s Silent Ambassadors: flower shows and botanical diplomacy in South Africa, in: Ramutsindela, Maano / Miescher, Giorgio / Boehi, Melanie (Ed.): The Politics of Nature and Science in South Africa, 2016.
Jipp, Karl-Ernst: Die Strelizie und ihre abenteuerliche Geschichte - Der Weg einer exotischen Blume von Südafrika um die Welt, 1995.
Fara, Patricia: Sex, Botany and Empire: The Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks, 2003.
Saguaro, Shelley: Garden Plots: The Politics and Poetics of Gardens, 2006.
Orlow, Uriel: “Grey, Green, Gold”, in: Gabriel N. / Vogelaar, Alison (Ed.): Changing Representations of Nature and the City. Gee, 2008.
Saltmarsh, Anna C.: Collecting Plants for King and Country, in: Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, 2003, p. 225-244.
Schiebinger, Londa / Swan, Claudia: Introduction, in: the same (Ed.), Colonial Botany: Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World, 2007.
Stationen
The Strelitzia reginae as a representative flower of the city of Neustrelitz
Joseph Banks, colonial botanist and namesake
Plant hunter Francis Masson
Myths about Queen Charlotte
The Strelitzia reginae as a representative flower
"Mandela's Gold" - Plant Policy in the Republic of South Africa