Canella
Encyclopedia
Canella is a monospecific genus
containing the species
Canella winterana, a tree native to the Caribbean
from the Florida Keys
to Barbados
. Its bark is used as a spice similar to true cinnamon
, giving rise to the common names "cinnamon bark", "wild cinnamon", and "white cinnamon".
"Canella", the diminutive of the Latin canna, a cane or reed, was first applied to the bark of the old-world tree Cassia, Cinnamomum aromaticum, from the form of a roll or quill which it assumed in drying, and was later transferred to the West Indian tree. The species epithet winterana is an artifact from a period when this plant was confused with Winter's Bark, Drimys winteri
, which is itself named for William Winter.
s perfect, regular; sepal
s 3, imbricated, persistent; petal
s 5, imbricated; stamen
s monadelphous. Fruit baccate, indehiscent, 2 to 4-seeded.
A tree, with scaly aromatic bark, stout ashy gray branchlets conspicuously marked with large orbicular leaf-scars. Leaves
petiolate
, alternate, destitute of stipule
s, penniveined, entire, pellucid-punctate, coriaceous. Flowers arranged in a many-flowered subcorymbose terminal or subterminal panicle
composed of several dichotomously branched cymes from the axis of the upper leaves or of minute caducous bract
s. Sepals suborbiculate, concave, coriaceous, erect, their margins ciliate. Petals hypogynous, in a single row on the slightly convex receptacle, oblong, concave, rounded at the extremity, fleshy, twice the length of the sepals, white or rose-colored. Stamens about twenty, hypogynous, the filaments connate into a tube crenulate at the summit, and slightly extended above the linear anthers, which are adnate to its outer face, and longitudinally two-valved. Ovary
free, included in the androecium, cylindrical or oblong-conical, one-celled, with two parietal placentas, few-ovuled; style short, fleshy, the summit two or three-lobed, stigmatic; ovules arcuate, horizontal or descending, imperfectly anatropous, attached by a short funiculus. Fruit globular or slightly ovate, fleshy, minutely pointed with the base of the persistent style. Seed
s reniform, suspended; testa thick, crustaceous, shining black; tegmen soft, membranaceous. Embryo curved, near the summit of the copious oleo-fleshy albumen, its radicle
next the hilum; cotyledon
s oblong.
The wood
of Canella is very heavy and exceedingly hard, strong and close-grained, with numerous thin inconspicuous medullary ray
s; it is dark red-brown, the thick sapwood consisting of twenty-five to thirty layers of annual growth, light brown or yellow. The specific gravity
of the absolutely dry wood grown in Florida is 0.9893, a cubic foot of the dry wood weighing 61.65 pounds.
Canella attains in Florida a height of twenty-five to thirty feet, with a straight trunk eight or ten inches in diameter. On the mountains of Jamaica
it is said to grow sometimes to the height of fifty feet. The principal branches are slender, horizontal and spreading, forming a compact round-headed top. The bark of the trunk is an eighth of an inch thick, light gray, the surface broken into many short thick scales rarely more than two to three inches long, and about twice the thickness of the pale yellow aromatic inner bark. The leaves are obovate, round or slightly emarginate at the apex, and contracted into a short stout grooved petiole
; they are three and a half to five inches long, an inch and a half to two inches broad, bright deep greed, and lustrous. The flowers open in the autumn, and the fruit ripens in March and April, when it is bright crimson, soft and fleshy, and is eaten by many birds.
, Lysiloma
, Swietenia
, Bursera
, Hypelate, Dipholis, and Nectandra
.
Canella was one of the first American trees to attract the attention of Europeans, and it is mentioned in the accounts of many of the early voyages to America:
The white bark, the brilliant deep green foliage, and crimson fruit make the Canella one of the most ornamental of the smaller south Florida trees. It was introduced into England in 1738, and was first cultivated in Europe by Philip Miller
.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
containing the species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
Canella winterana, a tree native to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
from the Florida Keys
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...
to Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
. Its bark is used as a spice similar to true cinnamon
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...
, giving rise to the common names "cinnamon bark", "wild cinnamon", and "white cinnamon".
"Canella", the diminutive of the Latin canna, a cane or reed, was first applied to the bark of the old-world tree Cassia, Cinnamomum aromaticum, from the form of a roll or quill which it assumed in drying, and was later transferred to the West Indian tree. The species epithet winterana is an artifact from a period when this plant was confused with Winter's Bark, Drimys winteri
Drimys winteri
Drimys winteri , or Canelo, is a slender tree, growing up to 20 m tall. It is native to the Magellanic and Valdivian temperate rain forests of Chile and Argentina, where it is a dominant tree in the coastal evergreen forests. It is found below 1200 meters between latitude 32° south and Cape...
, which is itself named for William Winter.
Description
FlowerFlower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s perfect, regular; sepal
Sepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...
s 3, imbricated, persistent; petal
Petal
Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...
s 5, imbricated; stamen
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...
s monadelphous. Fruit baccate, indehiscent, 2 to 4-seeded.
A tree, with scaly aromatic bark, stout ashy gray branchlets conspicuously marked with large orbicular leaf-scars. Leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
petiolate
Petiole (botany)
In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...
, alternate, destitute of stipule
Stipule
In botany, stipule is a term coined by Linnaeus which refers to outgrowths borne on either side of the base of a leafstalk...
s, penniveined, entire, pellucid-punctate, coriaceous. Flowers arranged in a many-flowered subcorymbose terminal or subterminal panicle
Panicle
A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....
composed of several dichotomously branched cymes from the axis of the upper leaves or of minute caducous bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...
s. Sepals suborbiculate, concave, coriaceous, erect, their margins ciliate. Petals hypogynous, in a single row on the slightly convex receptacle, oblong, concave, rounded at the extremity, fleshy, twice the length of the sepals, white or rose-colored. Stamens about twenty, hypogynous, the filaments connate into a tube crenulate at the summit, and slightly extended above the linear anthers, which are adnate to its outer face, and longitudinally two-valved. Ovary
Ovary (plants)
In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the pistil which holds the ovule and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the base of the petals and sepals...
free, included in the androecium, cylindrical or oblong-conical, one-celled, with two parietal placentas, few-ovuled; style short, fleshy, the summit two or three-lobed, stigmatic; ovules arcuate, horizontal or descending, imperfectly anatropous, attached by a short funiculus. Fruit globular or slightly ovate, fleshy, minutely pointed with the base of the persistent style. Seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s reniform, suspended; testa thick, crustaceous, shining black; tegmen soft, membranaceous. Embryo curved, near the summit of the copious oleo-fleshy albumen, its radicle
Radicle
In botany, the radicle is the first part of a seedling to emerge from the seed during the process of germination. The radicle is the embryonic root of the plant, and grows downward in the soil...
next the hilum; cotyledon
Cotyledon
A cotyledon , is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant. Upon germination, the cotyledon may become the embryonic first leaves of a seedling. The number of cotyledons present is one characteristic used by botanists to classify the flowering plants...
s oblong.
The wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
of Canella is very heavy and exceedingly hard, strong and close-grained, with numerous thin inconspicuous medullary ray
Medullary ray (botany)
In botany, Medullary rays refer to a characteristic found in woods. In this context the term refers to radial sheets or ribbons extending vertically through the tree across and perpendicular to the growth rings. Also called pith rays or wood rays, these formations of primarily parenchyma cells...
s; it is dark red-brown, the thick sapwood consisting of twenty-five to thirty layers of annual growth, light brown or yellow. The specific gravity
Specific gravity
Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a reference substance. Apparent specific gravity is the ratio of the weight of a volume of the substance to the weight of an equal volume of the reference substance. The reference substance is nearly always water for...
of the absolutely dry wood grown in Florida is 0.9893, a cubic foot of the dry wood weighing 61.65 pounds.
Canella attains in Florida a height of twenty-five to thirty feet, with a straight trunk eight or ten inches in diameter. On the mountains of Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
it is said to grow sometimes to the height of fifty feet. The principal branches are slender, horizontal and spreading, forming a compact round-headed top. The bark of the trunk is an eighth of an inch thick, light gray, the surface broken into many short thick scales rarely more than two to three inches long, and about twice the thickness of the pale yellow aromatic inner bark. The leaves are obovate, round or slightly emarginate at the apex, and contracted into a short stout grooved petiole
Petiole (botany)
In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...
; they are three and a half to five inches long, an inch and a half to two inches broad, bright deep greed, and lustrous. The flowers open in the autumn, and the fruit ripens in March and April, when it is bright crimson, soft and fleshy, and is eaten by many birds.
Distribution
Canella is widely distributed, and not uncommon on the Florida keys, where it was first discovered by J. L. Blodgett. It generally grows under the shade of larger trees in dense forests composed of SideroxylonSideroxylon
Sideroxylon is a genus of flowering plants in the family Sapotaceae. There are about 70 species, collectively known as bully trees. The generic name is derived from the Greek words σιδηρος , meaning "iron", and ξύλον , meaning "wood."-Distribution:The genus is distributed mainly in the neotropics,...
, Lysiloma
Lysiloma
Lysiloma is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae.-Selected species:* Lysiloma acapulcense Benth.* Lysiloma candidum Brandegee* Lysiloma divaricatum J.F.Macbr....
, Swietenia
Swietenia
Swietenia is a genus of trees in the chinaberry family, Meliaceae. It occurs natively in the Neotropics, from southern Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America south to Bolivia...
, Bursera
Bursera
Bursera, named after the Danish botanist Joachim Burser is a genus with about 100 described species of flowering shrubs and trees varying in size upwards to 25 m. high...
, Hypelate, Dipholis, and Nectandra
Nectandra
Nectandra is a genus of plant in family Lauraceae.-Overview:Plants from this genus have been used in the treatment of several clinical disorders in humans. It has been demonstrated that Nectandra plants have potential analgesic, antiinflammatory, febrifuge, energetic and hypotensive activities...
.
Canella was one of the first American trees to attract the attention of Europeans, and it is mentioned in the accounts of many of the early voyages to America:
The white bark, the brilliant deep green foliage, and crimson fruit make the Canella one of the most ornamental of the smaller south Florida trees. It was introduced into England in 1738, and was first cultivated in Europe by Philip Miller
Philip Miller
Philip Miller FRS was a Scottish botanist.Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 until he was pressured to retire shortly before his death...
.