Canna edulis Ker Gawler.
Rhizome developed, much branched. Stems stout, to 2.5 m. Leaf sheath green or purple; petiole short; leaf blade adaxially green, abaxially and at margin green or purple, ovate-oblong to oblong, 30--60 × 10--20 cm. Inflorescence a raceme of cincinni. Bracts light purple, ovate, ca. 8 mm. Flowers 1 or 2 per cincinnus. Sepals pale purplish green, lanceolate, ca. 1.5 cm. Corolla tube apricot yellow, ca. 1.5 cm; lobes erect, red to apricot yellow with purplish apex, lanceolate, ca. 4 cm. Staminodes 2(or 3), erect, red with apricot yellow base, oblanceolate, 4--5.5 cm × 7--10 mm, 1 with apex emarginate; labellum red, sometimes with yellow spots, lanceolate, ca. 4.5 cm, margin revolute, apex emarginate; fertile stamen with filament reddish apricot yellow, lanceolate, ca. 4.2 cm; anther ca. 9 mm. Ovary green, globose, ca. 6 mm in diam., warty. Style red to apricot yellow, narrow, ca. 6 cm, base adnate to staminode column. Capsule broadly ovoid, 1.2--1.8 cm. Fr. Sep--Oct. 2 n = 18.
Cultivated. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [native to tropical America; cultivated throughout the tropics].
Cultivated for its starch and as an ornamental.
