Canna flaccida Salisb.
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| Wild Canna |
HEIGHT Medium, 1-2 metres
FOLIAGE Green
FORM Upright
FLOWER Yellow
Canna flaccida Salisb. is a medium sized aquatic species, equally at home as a water marginal or in the border; green foliage, large, lanceolate shaped, upright habit; round stems, coloured green; flowers are open, self-coloured yellow, staminodes are large, edges regular, petals yellow, fully self-cleaning, blooms open in the evening; fertile both ways, self-pollinating and also true to type; rhizomes are long and thin, coloured white; tillering is average.
Flowers emerge at night, but fade in the heat of the day, all other Cannas flower at day-break. Indigenous to the wetlands of south-eastern USA. It was a parent to many of the early-hybridised cannas known as orchid flowered cannas. It grows well as a water canna. Originally described by the early American explorer, William Bartram, when he found these plants blooming near the rivers of coastal Georgia. The seed floats down the rivers and becomes easily established on shorelines. Introduced to England in 1788.
Our earliest reference to this specimen is RHS Journal of 1862.
