Canna ×generalis L.H. Bailey

Garden Canna

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Garden Canna is an introduced herbaceous perennial in the Canna family (Cannaceae). It is apparently a hybrid of garden origin between Canna indica L. and C. glauca L., or C. iridiflora Ruiz & and Pavóon. In Alabama it can be found at scattered locations throughout the state. Garden Canna is widely cultivated and persists or escapes around old home sites, along roadsides, around ponds and lakes, along streams, and in wet roadside ditches. It is a colonial perennial from thick fleshy rhizomes. Stems are 3-6 feet in height, unbranched, glabrous, and enclosed by the leaf sheaths. Leaves are 2-ranked, ovate to elliptic in outline, entire, glabrous, and sometimes glaucous. The leaves are green, bronze, or variegated in color. Flowers are produced in terminal racemes or panicles. Individual flowers consist of 3 distinct sepals and 3 petals untied at the base. There is one petal-like fertile stamen and 3-4 petal-like staminodes (sterile or abortive stamens). The style is petal-like and the ovary is warty or spiny, 3-locular, and inferior. Flower color varies from yellow to orange, red, or variegated. The fruit is a capsule. Garden Canna is a larval host for the Brazilian Skipper (Calpodes ethlius), which builds protective feeding tubes by folding or rolling the leaves together and securing them with silk.—A. Diamond

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Not Native OBL (NWPL)

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