The Story of Canna

Canna flowers are red, orange, or yellow,
often with varied stripes, spots or other patterns.

The bright reds, yellows, and oranges of Cannas are a common sight in Florida and other subtropical parts of the country nearly  year-round. Elsewhere, they can be planted out in the summer and lifted before the ground freezes, or grown in containers. Have you ever taken a closer look though? 

Cannas are rhizomatous plants with paddle-shaped leaves that resemble those of related bananas, gingers, and birds-of-paradise. The flowers are showy, but oddly asymmetrical, with large, overlapping petals. Flowers give way to bristly seed capsules filled with hard, black, round, shot-like seeds. 

The parallel veins of Canna leaves enter
the leaf as a dense bundle, and spread one
 by one to either side to form the broad
blade. This is the pattern seen in other
monocots, like bananas, gingers, 
birds-of-paradise and  unsplit palm fronds.

The commonly grown varieties come from the wild species Canna indica and/or C. discolor. Depending on which taxonomic treatment you follow, there are 10-20 species in total, all native to tropical and subtropical America. 

The bristly seed pods of Canna reach full-
size a few weeks after the petals fall.

The common Cannas grow in ordinary mesic soil, but some are aquatic marsh plants, like C. flaccida, which is common in Florida. The familiar species are 3-6 feet tall, but some tropical species can be up to 16 feet tall. 

Cannas have multiple practical uses as well. The rhizomes contain edible starch, leaves and stems have fiber useful for making paper or ropes, and the extremely hard seeds are used as beads or rattles in musical instruments.

This bright yellow blossom of Canna
flaccida was found in a Central Florida
marsh. The extremely hard seeds collected
from nearby plants germinated only after
filing through the seed coat, but grew to
flowering size in 2-3 months.

The dangling red flowers of the 16 ft. tall 
Canna iridiflora suggest pollination
by hummingbirds. This species 
grows in tropical mountains between 5000 and 
9000 feet elevation, where it can be cool but 
never freezing. Photo posted on Wikipedia, CC.