Red and Green Kangaroo Paw
State Flower of Western Australia
Red and green kangaroo paw ... Western Australia flower
Photograph courtesy of Tourism Western Australia
The red and green kangaroo paw, Anigozanthos manglesii, is Western Australia's floral emblem.
Plants of the genus Anigozanthos have an inflorescence bearing a resemblance to the paw of a kangaroo.
The specific name, manglesii, honors an Englishman. Robert Mangles, who raised the red and green kangaroo paw in his Berkshire garden in the 1830s from seed sent from Australia.
Low shrub
The red and green kangaroo paw is a low shrub growing from an underground stem, with leaves about 30 to 60 centimetres long. The flowering stem grows to about a metre in height.
The stem and the bases of the flowers are usually deep red and covered with woolly hairs. The color then changes abruptly to a brilliant green for most of the length of the flower which splits open to show a smooth pale green interior.
Flowering season
The red and green kangaroo paw occurs naturally in Western Australia in heath on sandy soil from the Murchison River in the north to Busselton and Mount Barker in the south and Lake Muir to the east, and on gravelly soil of lateritic origin in the Darling Range.
It flowers in its natural habitat between August and October.
Source: Australian National Botanic Gardens.
