Anigozanthos - Kangaroo Paw

The Kangaroo Paw is one of the most recognizable and popular of all the Australian native flowers. There are 11 species of Kangaroo Paw within the Anigozanthos family, and they're considered perennial herbs which grow from an underground rhizome system. They have an extensive flowering season, usually from spring to early summer and they come in a wide range of colors and sizes.

Kangaroo Paw flowers are most colorful when they're in bud stage, as it is the fine hairs covering the bud that give them their color. When the flowers bloom, they add a new contrast to the overall look of the plant, and come in a variety of colors, some with white petals and orange stamen, others with green petals and red stamen. Their fascinating double life as both bud and flower is what makes them so popular among gardeners and within floral designs.

Kangaroo Paws add wonderful color and texture to arrangements and bouquets.  They also dry well and have no fragrance.

Some Interesting K-Paw Facts:

Kangaroo Paws are mainly pollinated by birds. The shape of the flowers and the position of the pollen-bearing anthers allows pollen to be deposited on the head of feeding birds. This pollen is transferred from flower to flower as the birds feed. Different species usually deposit pollen on different areas of the birds’ head. This means that pollen from one species is unlikely to be deposited in the flowers of another species.

The generic name Anigozanthos is probably derived from the Greek ‘anises’, meaning ‘unequal’ or ‘oblique’, and ‘anthos’, meaning ‘flower’, in reference to the division of the floral extremities into six unequal parts. The red-green A. Manglesii is the state emblem of Western Australia.