Canna Lilies
Cannaceae
Summary 2
Canna (or canna lily, although not a true lily) is a genus of 10 species of flowering plants. The closest living relations to cannas are the other plant families of the order Zingiberales, that is the Zingiberaceae (gingers), Musaceae (bananas), Marantaceae, Heliconiaceae, Strelitziaceae, etc.
Distribution 3
The genus is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the New World, from the Southern United States (southern South Carolina west to southern Texas) and south to northern Argentina.
C. indica has become naturalized in many tropical areas around the world, is a difficult plant to remove, and is invasive in some places.
Canna cultivars are grown in most countries, even those with territory above the Arctic Circle, which have short summers, but long days, and the rapid growth rate of cannas makes them a feasible gardening plant, as long as they receive 6–8 hours of sunlight each day during the growing season and are protected from the cold of winter.
Description 3
The plants are large tropical and subtropicalherbaceousperennials with a rhizomatous rootstock. The broad, flat, alternateleaves that are such a feature of these plants, grow out of a stem in a long, narrow roll and then unfurl. The leaves are typically solid green, but some cultivars have glaucose, brownish, maroon, or even variegated leaves.
The flowers are asymmetric and composed of three sepals and three petals that are small, inconspicuous, and hidden under extravagant stamens. What appear to be petals are the highly modified stamens or staminodes. The staminodes number (1–) 3 (–4) (with at least one staminodal member called the labellum, always being present. A specialized staminode, the stamen, bears pollen from a half-anther. A somewhat narrower "petal" is the pistil, which is connected down to a three-chambered ovary.
The flowers are typically red, orange, or yellow, or any combination of those colours, and are aggregated in inflorescences that are spikes or panicles (thyrses). Although gardeners enjoy these odd flowers, nature really intended them to attract pollinators collecting nectar and pollen, such as bees, hummingbirds, sunbirds, and bats. The pollination mechanism is conspicuously specialized. Pollen is shed on the style while still in the bud, and in the species and early hybrids, some is also found on the stigma because of the high position of the anther, which means that they are self-pollinating. Later cultivars have a lower anther, and rely on pollinators alighting on the labellum and touching first the terminal stigma, and then the pollen.
The wild species often grow to at least 2–3 m (6.6–9.8 ft) in height, but wide variation in size exists among cultivated plants; numerous cultivars have been selected for smaller stature.
Cannas grow from swollen underground stems, correctly known as rhizomes, which store starch, and this is the main attraction of the plant to agriculture, having the largest starch grains of all plant life.
Canna is the only member of the Liliopsida class (monocot group) in which hibernation of seed is known to occur, due to its hard, impenetrable seed covering.
Fontes e Créditos
- (c) Cheryl McCleary-Catalano, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY), uploaded by Cheryl McCleary-Catalano
- Adaptado por Tricia LeBlanc de uma obra de (c) Wikipedia, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-SA), https://hub.toolforge.org/P3151:52343?lang=
- (c) Wikipedia, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canna_(plant)
