Cannaceae

Cannaceae or canna family is a monotypic family containing single genus

Canna with about 60 species, the original home of Canna is tropical and
subtropical America. One species Carina bidentata is tropical African. Canna
indica is a favourite garden plant, cultivated in almost all parts of the world.
.
Vegetative characters
Habit:
Perennial herbs, large, course.
Root:
Adventitious.
Stem:
Rhizome or rarely tuberous, and subterranean and underground.
Leaf:
Large, cauline, foliaceous, alternate, mostly oblong to broadly elliptic; distinctly
differentiated into sheath, petiole and blade, pinnately veined with prominent
midrib; leaves with pulvinus like swelling.
Floral characters:
Inflorescence:
A raceme or panicle.
Flower:
Large, showy, hermaphrodite bracteate, short pedicellate, zygomorphic,
epigynous.
Perianth:
Six in two whorls of 3 each differentiated into calyx ad corolla. Sepals three,
polysepalous, persistent imbricate; petals 3, larger, connate at the base,
petaloid, imbricate.
Androecium:
Highly modified and comprising the showy part of flower, Stamens 6 but
sometimes reduced to 4; in two whorls; only one anther lobe of one stamen (the
posterior one of the inner whorl) fertile, the other anther-lobe long with the
filament becoming petaloid, the other two stamens of the inner-whorl are
connate to form a curved petaloid staminode-the labellum in the outer whorl,
stamen (anterior) is suppressed while the two lateral ones are modified into the
petaloid staminodes.
Gynoecium:
Tricarpellary syncarpous, inferior, trilocular warty, multiovulate, axile
placentation in each ovarian chamber in 2 series; style flattened and petaloid;
stigma one and represented by a stigmatic line on the apical margin, the two
lateral weak, wings sometimes interpreted as sterile strigmatic lobes.
Fruit:
Loculicidal warty capsule crowned by persistent calyx.
Seed:
Subglobose small with copious mealy perisperm and scanty endosperm.
Floral formula:

Economic Importance of Cannaceae

Stem, rhizomatous, absence of ligule, Flowers asymmetrical, Zygomorphic,
petaloid staminodium, half fertile stamen and warty ovary
1. Food:
The rhizome of Canna edulis is used as foodstuff for starch, it contains.
2. Ornamental:
Canna indica is a favourate garden plant, cultivated in almost all parts of the
world.
Common plants of the family:
1. Canna indica (syn. C. orientalis) – Verna: Kali-Indian shot cultivated for
showy flower.
2. Canna edulis – Queenland arrowroot
 Marantaceae

Leaves 3-sectioned i.e., sheath, petiole, blade with the peculiar pulviniform
ligule, unusual androecial condition with its several staminodes and solitary
monothecous anther; 1-3 loculed ovary with a single apparently basal ovule in
each fertile locule; the seed arillate with curved or folded embryo.
A. Vegetative characters:
Habit:
Perennial herbs or shrubs.
Stem:
Acaulescent, rhizomatous rarely tuberous and sub-terranean.
Leaf:
alternate, petiolate, sheathing lamina usually linear, ovate, oblong or elliptic,
pinnate, closely parallel, ligule or pulvinus-like swelling on the stalks; leaf
distinguished into sheath, petiole and blade.
B. Floral characters:
Inflorescence:
Spikes or panicles sometimes scapose usually surrounded or subtended by a
spathacous bract.
Flower:
Zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, epigynous, often in pairs at the axil of bracts.
Perianth:
Tepals 6, in two whorls of 3 each, usually differentiated into calyx and corolla.
Sepal:
3, free and imbricate.
Petal:
3, connate in an unequally lobed tubular corolla, the posterior corolla lobe is
somewhat concave, lobes imbricate.
Androcium:
Stamens of outer whorl are represented by 1 or 2 petaloid staminodes or all the
members completely suppressed; in the inner whorl the posterior median
stamen as in Canna bear half anther, the other half anther lobe modified into a
petaloid appendage, the remaining two lateral stamens of the inner whorl are
modified into petaloid staminodes, of which one functions as a labellum and
forms a hood over the stigma for time being ‘the staminode cocculatum
Gynoecium:
Carpels 3, syncarpous, ovary inferior, trilocular or unilocular (2 locules being
often sterile), ovules 3 or 1 due to abortion of two other ovules, axile
placentation; style 1, stout, flat, and twisted, lobed, involute or apically delated,
the stigma 1, terminal turncate or depressed.
Fruit:
Loculicidal capsule or fleshy and berry like but dehiscent
Seed:
Arillate with mealy perisperm, endospermic.
Pollination:
Entomophilous.
Floral formula:

Economic Importance of Marantaceae:

1. Food:
The bulbs of Maranta arundinacea yield ‘commercial arrowroot’ a diet for
children, due to presence of readily digestible starch.
2. Mat:
The split stems of Clinogyne dichotoma are woven into mat.
3. Ornamentals:
Thallia dealbata, Phrynium are grown as ornamentals.
Common plants of the family:
1. Maranta arundinacea – Arrow-root.
2. Thallia – a popular garden aquatic.
3. Calathea alovia – common in W. Indies