| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Common name: Canna Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 25.
Angiosperm. Liliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; capsule (Canna ×generalis L. H. Bailey), or carcerulus (Canna indica L.); fissuricidal capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; without persistent central column; crowned by tepals (sometimes); 3-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; in transection angled; 3-angled; apex not beaked; wall firm; dehiscent (Canna ×generalis L. H. Bailey), or indehiscent (Canna indica L.). Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent regularly; passively; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp durable; glabrous (without hairs); with armature; with warts; without armature glochidiate; not smooth; warted; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp absent. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; smooth; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without mechanism for seedling escape; without grooves; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent (we, as well as most authors, and best described by Dahlgren et al.: Seeds "are embedded in loose hairs, but these develop from the funiculus rather than chalaza and are often not regarded as a true aril (the very divergent statements as to whether an aril is present may depend of the interpretation of these hairs). When the seeds are shed these tufts remain on the capsule wall"). Seed larger than minute; circular; in transection terete; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with perisperm and endosperm (thin outer layer of endosperm & thicker inner layer of perisperm); without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; dull; surface unsmooth; surface with depressed features; surface minutely punctate; without crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; without notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approach each other; without glands; without bristles; without wings; with collar (micropylar); with operculum; colored; monochrome; black; thin, or coriaceous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted. Raphe conspicuous; texture as testa. Endosperm development nuclear, or helobial, or cellular (nuclear (possibly helobial) finally cellular); trace.
Perisperm copious; hard; with starch; with simple starch grains; opaque. Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed, or 2 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.8–0.9 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed extending into a depression or cup (unlike Commelinaceae & Arecaceae); axile and centric; linear; straight; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleoptile; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 1 cotyledon. Cotyledons one and not modified into scutellum; not circinately coiled. Hypocotyl-radicle moderately developed; straight; not thickened. Plumule well developed.
Distribution
New World. Middle America, South America (Canna indica widely cultivated).
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: Puerto Rico (PR).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Canna flaccida Salisb.: USA state noxious weed: PRª●. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
ISTA listed seeds.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Canna indica L.w -- Symbols: aagricultural and vegetable seeds (Table 2A Part 1); ttree and shrub species (Table 2A Part 2); fflower, spice, herb, and medicinal seeds (Table 2A Part 3); wweed seeds. -- Last updated September 2008.
Accepted genera
Canna L.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1183. Grootjen, C.J. & F. Bouman. 1988. Seed structure in Cannaceae: Taxonomic and ecological implications. Ann. Bot. (Oxford) 61:363–371.
General references
Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Gaertner, J. 1788–1805. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum. The Author, Stuttgart, Goldberg, A. 1986 (dicots) and 1989 (monocots). Classification, evolution, and phylogeny of the familes of Dicotyledons. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 58 for dicots (314 pp.) and 71 for monocots (74 pp.). [Goldberg's illustrations are reproduced from older publications and these should be consulted], Gunn, C.R., J.H. Wiersema, C.A. Ritchie, and J.H. Kirkbride, Jr. 1992 and amendments. Families and genera of Spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1796:1–500, LeMaout, E. and J. Decaisne. 1876. A general system of botany, 1,065 p. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Martin, A.C. 1946. The comparative internal morphology of seeds. Amer. Midl. Naturalist 36:513–660, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Cronquist. Seed illustration(s): Karen, Grootjen & Bouman (1988). Embryo illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Karen, Martin. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 364: Canna incana [not listed in INPI] (A-B).
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Canna indica L.: dehisced fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Canna indica L.: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Canna indica L.: embryo.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2000 onwards. Family guide for fruits and seeds: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 12th April 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
