Bitterroot Restoration

Order: Zingiberales
Family: Cannaceae
Common name: Saka siri, Indian shot, canna, bandera, chancle, coyol, or platanillo, Kardal in Marathi
Life cycle: perennial
Native Range: Canna indica is a native of the Caribbean and tropical Americas that is also widely cultivated as a garden plant.

Canna indica is a species of the Canna genus. It is an upright perennial rhizomatous herb. It is not usually over 5 ft high; leaves rather fleshy, with thin margins, usually not more than 1 ft. long and half as broad, lanceolate to sub-orbicular, veins arching-parallel. The flowers are hermaphrodite. Flowers red, yellow or variegated, showy, the staminodia black, capsular, nearly globose, enclosing a variable number of round, shiny black seeds. The seeds are small, globular, black pellets, hard and heavy enough to sink in water. They resemble shotgun pellets giving rise to the plant's common name of Indian Shot.

The plant is used in traditional medicine and the rhizome is used in traditional foods. The fibre from the leaves is used to make paper. They are widely used for jewellery. The seeds are also used as the mobile elements of the kayamb.