'Mandela’s Gold' is a rare, yellow-flowered form of the orange bird of paradise - Strelitzia reginae, which is probably one of the most well-known plants in the world.
It is a bold structural plant, which forms large evergreen clumps of stiff leaves growing up from the base. The grey-green banana-like leaves can grow to about 1 to 1.5m in height and the flowers stand above the foliage at the tips of long stalks.
The structure and pollination of the flowers are rather interesting. The hard, beak-like sheath from which the flower emerges, is called the spathe. This is placed at right angles to the stem, which gives it the appearance of a bird’s head.
The flowers, which emerge one at a time from the spathe, consist of 3 brilliant yellow sepals and 3 bright blue petals. Two of the blue petals are joined together to form an arrow-like nectary. When the birds sit to have a drink of nectar, the petals open to cover their feet with pollen.