The leaves on "traditional" bird of paradise are different -- the shape & the way the plant holds them, plus the color underneath. See:
emeelee, you're welcome.
Since it goes dormant for you then I doubt you'll ever have to worry about it getting that large. Good thing huh? Believe me, you don't want to have to deal with the blooms anyway. They aren't beautiful & colorful like the bird of paradise I put the photo of in this post. Instead they are sort of a dirty white. They get this gel like goo which if it gets on your clothes leaves a rusty stain I guarantee you will NEVER get out. I grew up in south FL where we put these plants in our yard so that's how I know -- I dealt with it.
