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Canna Indica Has Multiple Uses

Making It Grow Minute

  Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Canna indica is perhaps the most complex as far as naturally occurring hybrids of the ten species of canna. It has tremendous uses across the globe as a food and in the visual and musical arts. The rhizomes are very starchy and are an alternative source of arrowroot starch (most of which comes from a member of the prayer plant family). The rhizomes can be eaten raw, boiled or sometimes baked and contain 6-14 percent sugar in addition to 70-80 percent starch and a tiny bit of protein. The very hard seeds are used in to make rattles for musical purposes and also are widely used as black pearls or beds in Asian Indian jewelry. At one time, these seeds were purportedly a substitute for metal shot when regular ammunition couldn’t be had. Who knew the lowly canna could have such an incredibly number of uses!

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Amanda McNulty is a Clemson University Extension Horticulture agent and the host of South Carolina ETV’s Making It Grow! gardening program. She studied horticulture at Clemson University as a non-traditional student. “I’m so fortunate that my early attempts at getting a degree got side tracked as I’m a lot better at getting dirty in the garden than practicing diplomacy!” McNulty also studied at South Carolina State University and earned a graduate degree in teaching there.