the strelitzia

It's a strelitzia reginae on campus - or a bird of paradise flower, or a crane lily, if you prefer.  It's native to South Africa, but also happens to be the City Flower of Los Angeles.  Who knew the city had an official flower? (but there again, I only learned from NPR this morning that the State of California's official vegetable is the artichoke).  It's called strelitzia in honor of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818), who was married to George III (which can't have been a whole lot of fun): she was an amateur botanist who helped to expand Kew Gardens - where this flower was brought in 1773.  There's an C18th thatched cottage in the gardens which is named for her, and which - back then - used to have a little menagerie round it, with  a pair of black swans, buffaloes, a quagga (now extinct - a bit like a zebra, and one of those words that one dreams of being able to put down in Scrabble) and the first kangaroos to arrive in England.  There's a whole history of late C18th colonialism and natural history, right there.