Indian flower tube
| Indian flower tube | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Indian flower tube ( Canna indica ), illustration |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Canna indica | ||||||||||||
| L. |
Indian flower cane ( Canna indica ), also called edible Canna , Achira or Kapacho , Australian arrowroot , is a species of the flower cane genus ( Canna ), the only genus of the cane family (Cannaceae). The original distribution ranges from Mexico to Central America. Canna indica was introduced as an ornamental plant in Europe as early as 1570 . Intensive crossbreeding has been going on for around 200 years and around 1000 registered varieties have been created to date. It is planted as an ornamental and food plant worldwide and has grown wild in many frost-free areas of the world. The common name and botanical name Indian flower tube ( Canna indica ) comes from the error of the discoverer of "West India" ( West Indies ).
description
Habit and leaves
Canna indica grows as a perennial herbaceous plant .
It forms branched rhizomes as persistence organs. The rhizomes are up to 60 cm long, are divided into bulbous segments and covered in two rows by light green or purple scale-shaped lower leaves. Strength is stored in them. The very large starch grains can supposedly be seen with the naked eye.
Cannae indicae reach heights of growth of up to about 2 meters, depending on the variety. They form an upright, unbranched stem or the overlapping leaf sheaths form a pseudo- stem . The alternate and spiral or two-line arranged, very large, simple leaves are divided into leaf sheaths, short petioles and leaf blades. The leaf blade has a length of 30 to 60 cm and a width of 10 to 20 cm. The parallel leaf veins arise from the midrib (not typical for monocots).
Inflorescences and flowers
The eye-catching, terminal, traubige total inflorescence (inflorescence) is from 6 to 20 one to zweiblütigen, monochasialen, zymösen assembled part buds and very contains many flowers, 9 to 15 cm long bracts and inconspicuous, about 8 millimeters small, light-purple bracts .
The hermaphrodite , mostly large flowers are asymmetrical and threefold. The bracts are designed differently. The three free sepals are mostly green. The three petals are green or, depending on the variety, have shades of yellow to orange and red to pink. The base of the petals is fused with the staminodes to form a stamen column. There are two circles with originally three stamens each, but per flower there is only one fertile stamen with a corolla-like stamen , the others are transformed into corolla-like staminodes, one of the inner staminodes is bent back and forms the labellum, in some species a staminode is missing . The petals and staminodes are usually yellow to red.
The three carpels are at a constant under (syncarp) ovary adherent which has a soft-spiky surface and many central angle constant ovules contains. The stylus is flattened like a corolla. The pollen is deposited on the abaxial (off-axis) surface of the stylus. The pollination mechanism is very specialized and pollination is carried out by insects ( entomophilia ). The insects ingest the pollen from the flattened stylus. In their homeland, the flower is pollinated by hummingbirds . There they bloom from August to October.
Fruits and seeds
The three-chamber capsule fruit has a soft, prickly surface, is broadly ovoid, 1.2 to 1.8 cm in size and contains 5 to 25 (rarely up to 75) seeds. The medium to dark brown or black, shiny, spherical seeds with hard endosperms have a diameter of about 4 to 6.7 mm. The seeds ripen in October.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 18.
Distribution and location
Canna indica is native to South America ; their home is in Colombia , Venezuela , Brazil and Argentina as well as on the West Indies and in Central America. Today it is mainly grown as a useful plant on the Pacific and West Indies as well as in Australia .
Canna prefers light, sandy-loamy soils, but can also grow on heavy soils as long as they are not wet. It is indifferent to the soil reaction (pH value).
Systematics
Canna indica was first published in 1753 by Carl von Linné in Species Plantarum , 1: 1.
Since the revision of Nobuyuki Tanaka , Canna edulis is Ker-Gawl. a synonym of Canna indica L. Other synonyms are Canna compacta Rosc. , Canna limbata Rosc. , Canna lutea Mill. , Canna achiras , Canna esculenta . This species is often referred to as Canna edulis Ker Gawl in literature . guided.
With four varieties:
- Canna indica var. Flava (Roscoe ex Baker) Nob.Tanaka.
- Canna indica var. Maculata (Hook.) Nob.Tanaka.
- Canna indica var. Sanctae-rosae (Kraenzl.) Nob.Tanaka.
- Canna indica var. Warszewiczii (A.Dietr.) Nob.Tanaka.
Trivial names in other languages (selection): engl. : "Edible Canna", "Queensland Arrowroot"; french : "Basilier comestible".
use
The Achira mainly uses the starchy rhizomes . The starch is easy to digest and therefore well suited as food for sick people and children. The tubers can be eaten raw or cooked. The starch is also suitable for baking.
In South America, the leaves are used to wrap pastries (tamales, quimbolitos), similar to banana leaves or corn leaves. In some areas the leaves are fed to livestock. The round seeds are pierced and used as pearls in some areas. But they are also used to fill rattles. The seeds were previously used by the indigenous peoples as gold weights, similar to the seeds of Ceratonia siliqua ( carat ), since like them they have a constant weight.
ingredients
The Achira rhizomes consist of 73% water. In addition to 24% starch (according to Franke; another source cites 31%) they also contain 1% protein, 0.6% crude fiber and 1.4% minerals.
Cultivation
The Achira was cultivated by the indigenous people of the eastern Andes long before the turn of the century . Images have been found on pottery dating from 2500 BC. Have been dated. Today it only plays a certain role as a food crop in the Andes in the area of Cuzco . Today it is mainly grown on the Pacific and some West Indies, but especially in Queensland in Australia.
Since the Achira grows more slowly than potatoes or sweet potatoes , nowhere has it acquired the agricultural importance of these species. The yield is around 300 to 400 dt per hectare of cultivation area. About 1 dt of pure starch can be obtained from 9 dt of harvested rhizomes. The starch comes on the market as the " Queensland Arrowroot ".
Trivia
Canna indica also appears in the first movement of Theodor Fontane's novel Effi Briest .
swell
- Delin Wu & W. John Kress: Cannaceae in der Flora of China , Volume 24, p. 378: Canna indica - Online. (English)
- Shahina A. Ghazanfar: Cannaceae in the Flora of Pakistan : Canna indica - Online. (English)
- W. John Kress, Linda M. Prince: Cannaceae in the Flora of North America , Volume 22: Canna indica - Online. (English)
- W. Franke: Nutzpflanzenkunde , Stuttgart 1985.
- Vernon Hilton Heywood : Flowering Plants of the World , Basel-Boston-Stuttgart 1978.
Individual evidence
- ^ PF Yeo: Secondary polling presentation: Form, function and evolution. In: Pl. Syst. Evol. , Suppl. 6, 1993, pp. 204-208.
- ^ Canna indica at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Canna - World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Last accessed on August 11, 2018.
- ^ Nobuyuki Tanaka: Taxonomic revision of the family Cannaceae in the New World and Asia. In: Makinoa , 1, 2001, pp. 1-74.
Web links
- Species description. (engl.)
- Further species description. (engl.)