Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Canna indica

Indian-shot, platanillo
Rhizomes

fleshy.
Leaves

sheath glabrous;

blade narrowly ovate to ovate, 20–60 × 10–30 cm, base obtuse to narrowly cuneate, apex shortly acuminate to acute, abaxially and adaxially glabrous.
Inflorescences

racemes, sometimes branched, bearing 1- to 2-flowered cincinni, 6–20 per inflorescence;

primary bracts to 15 cm;

secondary bracts to 9 cm;

floral bracts persistent, broadly obovate to narrowly (ob)ovate(-triangular), 0.5–3 × 0.5–1.5 cm, apex entire, often glaucous;

bracteoles (ovate-)triangular, 0.5–2 × 0.3–0.8 cm, apex entire.
Flowers

red to yellow-orange, never pure yellow (except in some hybrid cultivars), 4.5–7.5 cm;

pedicels 0.2–1 cm, to 1.5 cm in fruit;

sepals narrowly triangular, 0.9–1.7 × 0.2–0.5 cm;

petals erect, 4–6.5 cm, tube 0.5–1.5 cm, lobes lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 3.5–5 × 0.4–0.7 cm;

staminodes 3–4, narrowly obovate to spatulate, 4.5–7.5 cm, free part 0.3–0.5 cm wide, apex rounded, acute, or cleft;

labellum reflexed, narrowly oblong, approximately equal to other staminodes.
Capsules

ellipsoid to nearly globose, 1.5–3 × 1.5–2 cm.
Seeds

black, globose to nearly globose, 5–8 × 4–6.7 mm diam. 2n = 18.

Canna indica
Phenology Flowering primarily spring–summer; fruiting summer–early fall.
Habitat Often, if not always, in secondary growth and waste places
Elevation 0–100 m [0–300 ft]
Distribution
from FNA
FL; LA; SC; TX [Apparently introduced]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Canna indica is probably native to neotropics and is now common throughout tropics and subtropics.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 22.
Parent taxa Cannaceae > Canna
Sibling taxa
C. flaccida, C. glauca
Synonyms C. coccinea, C. discolor, C. edulis, C. lutea, C. warscewiczii
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 1. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers