Botanical name: Canna
Common name: Canna Lilies
Genus: Canna
Family name: Cannaceae
Approx. mature size: 2-3m high, 50-80mm wide
Plant type and form: Canna are large tropical and herbaceous perennials with a rhizomatous root-stock that allows them to spread slowly outward from where they are planted. Each individual stem consists of a central stalk with 10 to 12 leaves arranged alternately or spirally along it. Once the plant has 6 to 9 leaves, it forms an inflorescence at the tip. After the inflorescence has finished flowering, that stalk begins to die and is replaced by a new stalk emerging toward the tip of the rhizome.
The Canna genus has up to 19 species.
- Canna bangii
- Canna flaccida
- Canna glauca
- Canna indica
- Canna iridiflora
- Canna jaegeriana
- Canna liliiflora
- Canna paniculata
- Canna pedunculata
- Canna tuerckheimii
- Canna amabilis
- Canna coccinea
- Canna compacta
- Canna discolor
- Canna jacobiniflora
- Canna patens
- Canna plurituberosa
- Canna speciosa
- Canna stenantha
Foliage: Large, attractive foliage. The leaves are large and broad banana-like, flat and alternate leaves that slowly unfurl as they grow out of the stem. Most lilies are evergreen in colour but some have purple, red or variegated leaves
Flowers: A Canna flower is a combination of 3 petals joined at the stem. Canna flowers range in color from pale-yellow, to orange, to blood-red, and all shades in between (salmon, apricot, and pink). Some of the flowers are stripped, streaked, spotted or splotched with contrasting colours.
Seeds: The black seeds are protected by a green seed coat that eventually dries and allows the seeds last for a long time.
Key uses and characteristics: Used as a food source because of its high quality starch.
Seeds are used as beads in jewelry making and also as shotgun pellets.
Misc: Careful where you plant them, Canna lilies are quite invasive, infact very invasive.
References:
http://www.plantdelights.com/Article/Canna-Lily#sthash.c9PYEf0N.dpuf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canna_%28plant%29
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/3301/#b
Love and everything Green 🙂
‘Loba
Greens and Sunshine 