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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Canna flaccida
The Golden Canna was first described by William Bartram in the seventeenth century. Soon after, gardeners in America and England alike began introducing Golden Canna into wet places in their landscapes. The plant was at that time known as the Orchid-Flowered Canna, and has over time been used in the creation of various hybrids with varying flower and foliage colors.
Golden Canna is an enormous, beautiful marginal aquatic plant native to wetlands across the southeast. It has large, luscious foliage and bright golden flowers, sometimes with red mottling. It adds a noticeable tropical touch to landscapes, ponds, swamps, and other wet places. It also works in dry locations provided it is irrigated at dry times. Great companion plants include other marginal aquatics like Powdery Alligator-Flag, Arrowhead, Juncus, Lizard’s Tail, Swamp Sunflower, Green Arrow Arum, Goldenclub, and Pickerelweed and native waterlilies (provided waters are still and there exists at least 2 feet of water to plant them in). Terrestrial companions include cold-hardy palms like Sabal species (S. minor and S. palmetto), saw palmetto, and needle palm.
Cannaceae (Canna)
Rhizomatous herbaceous perennial. Leave are upright, thick, succulent, and have prominent longitudinal venation. Leaves are large (2 feet long and 6” wide) and broadly lanceolate to ovate. Leaf bases clasp the stem and overlap each other. Showy bright yellow flowers open consecutively and terminate the stems. They are 3” across, with a modified style and three modified stamens serving the function of petals. Fruits are small and dispersed via water.
Up to 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide (per stem)
Rhizomatous, herbaceous perennial marginal aquatic plant
Fast to moderate
Full sun, but tolerant of partial shade
Cannas perform best in moist, fertile soils that are rich in organic matter. They suffer greatly in droughts. Irrigation can maintain the plant through dry spells if a dry location for the plant is preferred. If planting Golden Canna above zone 8, rhizomes must be dug after the first killing frost and stored dry indoors until spring. Plants may need to be thinned and divided every 2-4 years.
Assets include the tropical-looking foliage, Golden Canna’s height compared to many marginal aquatics, and of course its elaborate flowers which superficially resemble those of irises.
Golden Canna is useful for moist areas. These include near gutters, ponds, lakes, streams, creeks, or in artificial water gardens. Irrigation can maintain the plant through dry spells if a dry location for the plant is preferred. It is most useful in masses or clumps.
The Golden Canna provides a great deal of protection to fish, amphibians, insects, and other aquatic life. It shades and cools water also, and minimizes heating that can kill fish and lower the dissolved oxygen in smaller ponds. The foliage allows the larvae of dragonflies to have a save place to climb from ponds and metamorphose into adults. The foliage is host to the larvae of the Brazilian Skipper butterfly, while nectariferous insects feed on the pollen and nectar of Golden Canna’s flowers.
Native to inundated wetlands along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from South Carolina, to Florida, to Texas. It inhabits wetlands, marshes, savannas, the margins of ponds and lakes, and wet roadside ditches.
Seeds or division (be sure to leave at least one bud on divisions)
Text by Kevin Tarner, Georgia Wildlife Federation
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