You can’t miss it, the fluorescent orange Canna Lily in bloom at the outside corner of the Art Studio. A perennial, it blooms in that spot well into the Fall each year.
Originating in South America but now grown throughout the tropics, the Canna is not in fact a member of the Lily family, but instead belongs to the taxonomic Order that includes Ginger and Banana.
There are many species and cultivars of Canna. Most image recognition tools will fail to specify which one, until you show them the distinctive seed pod with its jaunty purple plume, the former flowers’ sepals. The species is immediately recognized under the names Canna edulis aka Canna indica or Indian Shot. Edulis refers to its edible rhizome from which a tapioca-like starch is extracted. But what of “Indian Shot” ?
For the answer, you must wait about 5 weeks for the now blackened pod to burst its seams, revealing large, black seeds.
The seeds are notable for their hardness and density. According to legend, the seeds were used by rebelling soldiers during the Indian Mutiny when they ran out of bullets! What precipitated the Mutiny is a story of how one bullet offended two major religions.
Text and photos by Fred Kahan