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Canna indica
Also called Edible Canna, Purple Arrowroot, African Arrowroot, Cannon, Queensland Arrowroot, Sierra Leone Arrowroot, Canna Plurituberosa
In Singapore: Indian Shot, African Arrowroot, Pisang Sebiak, Bunga Tasbih, Daun Tasbih, 美人蕉 (Grown in Singapore)
Canna indica is a rhizomatous perennial in the Cannaceae family, grown for its starchy edible rhizomes and large leaves. It needs warm, frost-free conditions and thrives in sun with plenty of water during growth.
Canna indica, commonly known as Indian shot, African arrowroot, edible canna, purple arrowroot, Sierra Leone arrowroot, is a plant species in the family Cannaceae. It is native to the Americas and naturalized elsewhere. The edible rhizomes are a source of starch.
Canna indica (achira) has been cultivated by indigenous peoples of the Americas in tropical America for thousands of years. The place of the first domestication may have been the northern Andes, as may be true of other similar root crops such as Calathea allouia and M. arundinacea. The Cauca River valley of Colombia was a center of early domestication. Archaeological evidence has been found of the cultivation of achira in 3000 BCE by people of the Las Vegas culture of coastal Ecuador. As the Las Vegas region is arid and semiarid, achira was not likely a native plant, but imported from more humid climates. Achira was also being cultivated by 2000 BCE by the people of the Casma/Sechin culture in the extremely arid region of coastal Peru, also an area in which achira was probably not native.
Canna indica is native to much of South America: Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina as well as the West Indies and Central America.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Canna indica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
