Canna glauca L. is a species of the Canna

Canna (plant)

Canna is a genus of nineteen species of flowering plants. The closest living relations to cannas are the other plant families of the order Zingiberales, that is the gingers, bananas, marantas, heliconias, strelitzias, etc.Canna is the only genus in the family Cannaceae...

 genus, a member of the family Cannaceae. It originates from the wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s of tropical America

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

 and was introduced to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1730. It is a perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 growing to 1.5m. It is hardy to zone 10

Hardiness zone

A hardiness zone is a geographically defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including its ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone...

 and is frost tender. In the north latitudes it is in flower from August to October, and the seeds ripen in October. The flowers are hermaphroditic.

Synonyms

• Canna angustifolia L.
• Canna elegans Raf.
• Canna hassleriana Kraenzl.
• Canna lanceolata Lodd.
• Canna liturata Link ex A.Dietr.
• Canna mexicanna A.Dietr.
• Canna pedicellata C.Presl.
• Canna pruinosa Hoffmanns., Verz. Pfl.-Kult.
• Canna schlectendaliana Bouché
• Canna siamensis Kraenzl.
• Canna stolonifera D.Dietr.
• Canna stricta Bouché
• Canna 'Louisiana canna'
• Canna 'Mexicanna'

Taxonomy

In the last three decades of the 20th century, Canna species have been categorised by two different taxonomists, Paulus Johannes Maria Maas

Paulus Johannes Maria Maas

Paulus Johannes Maria Maas is a botanist from the Netherlands and a specialist in the flora of the neotropics. Maas has identified and named about two hundred fifty plants from the Burmanniaceae, the Costus Family , the Gentian Family , the Bloodwort Family , the Banana Family , the Olacaceae, the...

 from the Netherlands and Nobuyuki Tanaka

Nobuyuki Tanaka

Nobuyuki Tanaka is an economic botanist at the Tokyo Metropolitan University, the Makino Botanical Garden in Kōchi prefecture, Japan and the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute , Japan....

 from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Inevitably, there are differences in their categorisations.

Both agree that C. glauca is a distinct species, but in addition, Tanaka also recognises a separate variety.

Canna glauca var. glauca L.

It is aquatic species, with narrow, blue-green (glaucous) leaves, atop of which sit its large, delicate, pale yellow flowers. It grows as a marginal plant in up to about 15cm of still or slow-moving water.

Canna glauca var. siamensis (Kraenzl) Nb. Tanaka, 2001

This is a contentious variety as it occurs widely in South and Southeast Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, where it is supposed to have differentiated within the past few centuries.

Cultivation

The species prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The preferred soil is acid, neutral and basic (alkaline). It cannot grow in the shade and requires moist soil.

External links

• Kew Gardens, Checklist of plant families
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: New Views: Language of Flowers: Canna glauca
• PRINCE, LINDA M.* and W. JOHN KRESS. Smithsonian Institution, NMNH - Botany, MRC-166, Washington, DC 20560-0166. - Species boundaries in Canna (Cannaceae): evidence from nuclear ITS DNA sequence data.

See also=

• Canna
  Canna (plant)
  Canna is a genus of nineteen species of flowering plants. The closest living relations to cannas are the other plant families of the order Zingiberales, that is the gingers, bananas, marantas, heliconias, strelitzias, etc.Canna is the only genus in the family Cannaceae...
  
  
• List of Canna species
• List of Canna cultivars
  Canna (Plant) Gallery
  This is a gallery of named canna cultivars, representative of the various Canna cultivar groups. Names of cultivars are regulated by the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants, are registered with an International Cultivar Registration Authority and conform to the rules of the...