Take Australia into Your Living Room with Kangaroo Paw Flowers

If, like me, you find the tickets to fly to Australia a bit pricey, take Australia into your living room instead. The kangaroo paw is an interesting addition to a bouquet. It serves as a talking point for grown-ups and is fascinating for children, too. Sometimes they are also called Monkey Paws.

The kangaroo paw is the well-known Australian flower emblem for Western Australia. The natural habitat of the plants is Australia. It can’t be found anywhere else but has found its way into many gardens and is cultivated in many countries for the florist industry. They were first described in 1792 by French botanist de Labillardiere who gave them the botanical genus name of Anigozanthos. It is believed that he combined the name from the Greek words anisos (unequal) and anthos (flower) due to the asymmetrical form of the opened flower.

There is a flower of another genus, Macropidia (in reference to the kangaroo’s zoological name of Macropus), from the same family that has similar flowers and is also called a kangaroo paw. Its flowers are black, but what you get at the florists’ are usually Anigozanthos with their vivid colours ranging from green through yellow and orange to deep red. The flowers are covered in fine hair that gives them their colour. The impression of flowers on a stem is that of a colourful kangaroo paw.

The flower is an ideal addition to bouquets and arrangements if you want to make it a bit special and out of the ordinary. The unusual bloom is a talking point and fascinates children. For a gift that should be remembered, it is a good choice to make. According to Australian florists, it is possible to develop an allergy to these flowers and plants if you handle them constantly. That should not be the case for the occasional buyer, though. Over many years, we have so far never noted any allergic reaction in any of our florists in any of our shops.

The reason for the hairy flower is its way of propagation. The stems of the kangaroo stem are quite wooden and strong; the give ideal perch to small birds which feed on the nectar. The hair deposits pollen on the birds’ heads to be carried to the next flower. The different kinds of kangaroo paw reach different areas of the bird’s head to make sure there are no mistakes made in pollinating the wrong kind. The hybrids in existence are all man-made, therefore.

If you stick to basic rules in flower care, kangaroo paws should last you a long time. Basic rule means that you should cut their stems at the end when putting the bouquet in water and changing the water in vase every day. Australian florists recommend adding sugar to the first water; I never tried it but maybe you would want to do it. You should never place a bouquet in full sunlight as it will go off much faster than otherwise; with the kangaroo paw you might also notice that its colour fades away with that treatment.