Tufted, evergreen acaulescent shrubs up to 1,5 m tall and 2 m in diameter. The roots are fleshy and up to 20 mm in diameter.

The leaves are bright green (but develop a slight greyish blue bloom when grown in full sun), in two opposite rows (distichous), ascending to erect and firm and up to 1.5 m tall. The petioles are up to 12 mm in diameter and up to 800 mm long, green or with a slight greyish blue bloom. In plants growing in full sun the leaf blades are broadly egg-shaped (ovate) to almost lance-shaped (ovate-lanceolate) and 170–520(–650) x 100–190 mm.

The stalk of the inflorescence (about 4 are formed per season) is erect, firm, and grows up to 700 mm tall. It is pale green, bears 3 or 4 tightly sheathing bracts along its lengthand ends in a horizontal to ascending, boat-shaped bract (spathe) 170–180 mm long and drawn out into a sharp point. About three to six flowers arise from this boat-shaped bract (spathe) in succession.

The flowers have 3 outer perianth segments (sepals) and three inner ones (petals). The 3 outer perianth segments are white and stand up like the crest on a bird’s head. They are oblong-lanceolate, 85–110 x 20–23 mm, concave, and their lower part is keeled, the third (lower) outer perianth segment emerges from the sheath only on the fourth day, and it is linear-lanceolate, keeled and channelled. The three inner perianth segments (petals) are blue; 2 of them are joined together to form a spear-shaped structure 45–55 x 20 mm, with a central channel or split encasing the anthers and the style, and a characteristically eared (auricled) base. The ears (auricles) are rounded, about 20 mm long, they overlap and curve upwards. The third (upper) perianth segment is oblong, about 20 mm long and ends in a sharp point. The 5 stamens are horizontally presented and imbedded in the channel between the two inner perianth segments. The anthers are linear and twice as long as their stalks (filaments) and contain white, sticky pollen. The ovary has 3 compartments (3-locular) and is imbedded within the spathe. Its style is enclosed with the filaments in the central channel between the two inner perianth segments; the stigma is 10–15 mm long and sticky.

Flowering time: February to June.

The fruit is an oblong, triangular (triquetrous) woody capsule, 50 x 20 mm, which opens along the compartments (loculicidal dehiscence). The seeds are pea-sized, black and have a woolly orange aril.

Strelitzia reginae subsp. mzimvubuensis, apart from its white inner perianth segments (petals), also differs from the typical subspecies by being a smaller plant and by its shorter stigma which is only10–15 mm long. In subsp. reginae, the two lower petals are dark purple-blue and the stigma is at least 30 mm long. The sepals (outer segments) of subsp. mzimvubuensis are also orange coloured, as in the typical subspecies. The leaves of subsp. mzimvubuensis also differ in surface texture which is minutely corrugated.

The genus Strelitzia consists of five species endemic to southern Africa and is largely confined to the south-eastern, eastern and northern parts of South Africa. The all have fleshy adventitious roots, and a tufted growth, and their flowers are borne on a condensed inflorescence known as a concinnus (condensed cyme). The flowers emerge from a characteristic, boat-shaped horizontal bract at the top of the inflorescence where they open in succession.

Two easily recognized groups can be distinguished in the genus.

• A smaller stemless, tufted group (S. reginae and S. juncea) bearing elongated inflorescences protruding above the leaf canopy.
• A second group consisting of large shrubs or trees with elongated stems, huge banana-like leaves,and shortly stalked (and larger) inflorescences in the upper leaf axils (S. alba, S. nicolai & S. caudata). These three are very similar and closely related and difficult to distinguish when not in flower. Best known among them is Strelitzia nicolai, a coastal sand dune species prominent along the E. Cape & KZN coast. It has white sepals and blue petals. S. alba is the rarest and confined to Natures Valley in the southern Cape. Both its petals and sepals are white and the plant has a more compact growth than S. nicolai. S. caudata is confined to Mpumalanga, the Soutpansberg and the Chimanimani Mountains in Zimbabwe. All the species have been written up for the Flowering Plants of Africa series (Phillips 1925; Dyer 1945–1946, 1980).