Mandela’s Gold is a rare yellow flowering bird of paradise flower, whose tiny black seeds have an orange tuft of hair. The flower was bred over almost 20 years at the National Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, coinciding with Nelson Mandela’s incarceration in the notorious Robben Island prison. In 1994, after he became the first black president of South Africa, the flower was named in his honour. The seed (photographed under a loupe – a small magnifying glass) will be presented as part of Orlow’s exhibition Mafavuke’s Trial and Other Plant Stories at The Showroom.

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