Dwarf Canna Lily named Ermine
by J McCombie
Title
Dwarf Canna Lily named Ermine
Artist
J McCombie
Medium
Photograph
Description
This piece has been featured in the FAA Group "Colorful Lilies".
This Curt Wallace hybrid is still regarded as the closts to white that is available in the canna family. This 3' tall clumper is topped all summer with very large, creamy white flowers, flushed with pale yellow toward the centre ... a hummingbird treat. Canna "Ermine" is a very rare and sought-after hybrid.
Canna (or canna lily, although not a true lily) is a genus of nineteen species of flowering plants. The closest living relations to cannas are Zingiberaceae (gingers), Musaceae (bananas), Marantaceae, Heliconiaceae, Strelitziaceae, etc. It is a perennial growing to between 20" and 8', depending on the variety. It is hardy to zone 10 and is frost tender. The flowers are hermaphrodite.
The seeds are small, globular, black pellets, hard and heavy enough to sink in water. They resemble shotgun pellets giving rise to the plant's common name of Indian Shot. They are hard enough to shoot through wood and still survive and later germinate. According to the BBC "The story goes that during the Indian Mutiny of the 19th century, soldiers used the seeds of a Canna Indica when they ran out of bullets." The seeds are also widely used for jewellery and are also used as the mobile elements of the kayamb, a musical instrument from Reunion, as well as the hosho, a gourd rattle from Zimbabwe, where the seeds are known as "hota" seeds.
Although a plant of the tropics, most cultivars have been developed in temperate climates and are easy to grow in most countries of the world as long as they can enjoy at least 6-8 hours average sunlight during the summer, and are moved to a warm location for the winter.
Uploaded
September 14th, 2011
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