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).[1] It is one of three large banana-like Strelitzia species, all of which are native to southern Africa,[2] the other two being S. alba and S. nicolai.
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.[3]
Strelitzia caudata was first described in 1946 by Robert Allen Dyer in Flowering Plants of Africa, Volume 25, Plate 997.[4] The specific epithet caudata means "with a slender tail";[5] this refers to an appendage of a sepal, which is prominent in this species.[4]
It usually grows in dense clumps, in areas of montane forests and is found between rocks on steep grassy slopes.[6]