Canna jaegeriana Urb.

A giant species; green foliage, very large, oblong shaped, arching habit; triangular stems, coloured green; spikes of flowers are bell-shaped, self-coloured yellow-orange, staminodes are long and narrow, partial self-cleaning; fertile both ways, not known if true to type, self-pollinating, capsules round; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink; tillering is average.
A giant wild species, first identified by Ignatz Urban, that is difficult to grow in northern climates, but which rewards successful husbandry with its giant green leaves, lower side and sheaths more or less lanuginose, and topped by yellow-orange flowers and yellowish-green fruits.
This is a wild species that has not adapted to a temperate climate and its winters. It is used to growing 52 weeks of the year and if you cannot bring it indoors over the winter to continue growing there, then it is pointless trying to treat it like a cultivar, as it will not survive such treatment.
Synonyms are C. domingensis Urb., C. leucocarpa Bouché, C. pertusa Urb.

Canna jaegeriana Urb.

A giant species; green foliage, very large, oblong shaped, arching habit; triangular stems, coloured green; spikes of flowers are bell-shaped, self-coloured yellow-orange, staminodes are long and narrow, partial self-cleaning; fertile both ways, not known if true to type, self-pollinating, capsules round; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink; tillering is average.

A giant wild species, that is difficult to grow in northern climates, but which rewards successful husbandry with its giant green leaves, lower side and sheaths more or less lanuginose, and topped by yellow-orange flowers and yellowish-green fruits.

This is a wild species that has not adapted to a temperate climate and its winters. It is used to growing 52 weeks of the year and if you cannot bring it indoors over the winter to continue growing there, then it is pointless trying to treat it like a cultivar, as it will not survive such treatment.

Synonyms are C. domingensis Urb., C. leucocarpa Bouché, C. pertusa Urb.

Canna tuerckheimii to be conserved

A proposal has been made to conserve the name Canna tuerckheimii against C. latifolia, C. gigantea, C. neglecta, and C. violacea and the name C. jaegeriana against C. leucocarpa (Cannaceae). The proposal has been made by Dr. Hilte Maas van der Kamer, of the National Herbarium, Netherlands in the journal TAXON.

Most of the proposal is devoted to the C. tuerckheimii proposition and what look like totally convincing arguments are made for the proposition that C. latifolia, C. gigantea, C. neglecta, and C. violacea should be synonyms of C. tuerckheimii.

However, Dr Tanaka, in his revision of the species, put forward his view that C. tuerckheimii was a synonym of C. latifolia.

Interestingly, one of the arguments put forwards refers to the number of Google hits under the various names. The times, they are a changin’, even for taxonomists.

The proposition for C. jaegeriana looks less controversial, and as Dr Tanaka also recognises C. jaegeriana it would appear that proposition may pass without question. However, this is not a two-man show and there are others involved other than our two learned species authorities.

As we have happily grown and spelt C. latifolia for many years we are concerned about a change in name to one we cannot spell! More seriously, it is good to see how the naming process works, as the canna genus still has many ‘old species’ to classify and align.