Canella

Last updated

Canella
Canella winterana Guadeloupe.JPG
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Magnoliids
Order: Canellales
Family: Canellaceae
Genus: Canella
P. Browne, 1756
Species:
C. winterana
Binomial name
Canella winterana
(L.) Gaertn., 1788 [2]
Synonyms

Canella alba Murray [3]
Laurus winterana L. [4]

Canella is a monospecific genus containing the species Canella winterana, a tree native to the Caribbean from the Florida Keys to Barbados. Its bark is used as a spice similar to cinnamon, giving rise to the common names cinnamon bark, wild cinnamon, and white cinnamon. [5]

Contents

Description

Flowers perfect, regular; sepals 3, imbricated, persistent; petals 5, imbricated; stamens monadelphous. Fruit baccate, indehiscent, 2 to 4-seeded. [6]

A tree, with scaly aromatic bark, stout ashy gray branchlets conspicuously marked with large orbicular leaf-scars. Leaves petiolate, alternate, destitute of stipules, penniveined, entire, pellucid-punctate, coriaceous. Flowers arranged in a many-flowered subcorymbose terminal or subterminal panicle composed of several dichotomously branched cymes from the axis of the upper leaves or of minute caducous bracts. Sepals suborbiculate, concave, coriaceous, erect, their margins ciliate. Petals hypogynous, in a single row on the slightly convex receptacle, oblong, concave, rounded at the extremity, fleshy, twice the length of the sepals, white or rose-colored. Stamens about twenty, hypogynous, the filaments connate into a tube crenulate at the summit, and slightly extended above the linear anthers, which are adnate to its outer face, and longitudinally two-valved. Ovary free, included in the androecium, cylindrical or oblong-conical, one-celled, with two parietal placentas, few-ovuled; style short, fleshy, the summit two or three-lobed, stigmatic; ovules arcuate, horizontal or descending, imperfectly anatropous, attached by a short funiculus. Fruit globular or slightly ovate, fleshy, minutely pointed with the base of the persistent style. Seeds reniform, suspended; testa thick, crustaceous, shining black; tegmen soft, membranaceous. Embryo curved, near the summit of the copious oleo-fleshy albumen, its radicle next the hilum; cotyledons oblong. [6]

The wood of Canella is very heavy and exceedingly hard, strong, and close-grained, with numerous thin, inconspicuous medullary rays; it is dark red-brown, and the thick sapwood consists of 25 to 30 layers of annual growth, light brown or yellow in color. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood grown in Florida is 0.9893; a cubic foot of the dry wood weighs 61.65 pounds. [6]

Canella attains in Florida a height of 25 to 30 feet, with a straight trunk eight to 10 inches in diameter. On the mountains of Jamaica, it is said to grow sometimes to the height of 50 feet. The principal branches are slender, horizontal, and spreading, forming a compact round-headed top. The light gray bark of the trunk is an eighth of an inch thick, the surface is broken into many short thick scales rarely more than 2-3 in long, and about twice the thickness of the pale yellow, aromatic inner bark. The leaves are obovate, round or slightly emarginate at the apex, and contracted into a short, stout, grooved petiole; they are 3.5-5.0 in long, 1.5-2.0 in broad, bright deep green, and lustrous. The flowers open in the autumn, and the fruit ripens in March and April, when it is bright crimson, soft, and fleshy, and is eaten by many birds. [6]

Name

Canella, the diminutive of the Latin canna , a cane or reed, was first applied to the bark of the Old World tree cassia, Cinnamomum aromaticum , from the form of a roll or quill which it assumed in drying, and was later transferred to the West Indian tree. [6] The genus Canella was erected in 1756 by Patrick Browne. [7] [8] The species epithet winterana is an artifact from a period when this plant was confused with Winter's bark, Drimys winteri , which is itself named for William Winter. [9]

Distribution

Canella is widely distributed, and not uncommon on the Florida Keys, where it was first discovered by J. L. Blodgett. It generally grows under the shade of larger trees in dense forests composed of Sideroxylon , Lysiloma , Swietenia , Bursera , Hypelate , Dipholis , and Nectandra . [6]

Canella was one of the first American trees to attract the attention of Europeans, and it is mentioned in the accounts of many of the early voyages to America: [6]

We found there a tree whose leaf had the finest smell of cloves that I have ever met with; it was like a laurel leaf, but not so large: but I think it was a species of laurel.

Diego Álvarez Chanca, January 1494 [10]

The white bark, the brilliant deep green foliage, and crimson fruit make the Canella one of the most ornamental of the smaller south Florida trees. It was introduced into England in 1738, and was first cultivated in Europe by Philip Miller. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Viburnum lentago</i> Species of flowering plant

Viburnum lentago, the nannyberry, sheepberry, or sweet viburnum, is a species of Viburnum native to North America.

<i>Ptelea trifoliata</i> Species of tree

Ptelea trifoliata, commonly known as common hoptree, wafer ash, stinking ash, and skunk bush, is a species of flowering plant in the citrus family (Rutaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It is a deciduous shrub or tree, with alternate, trifoliate leaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canellaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Canellaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Canellales. The order includes only one other family, the Winteraceae. Canellaceae is native to the Afrotropical and Neotropical realms. They are small to medium trees, rarely shrubs, evergreen and aromatic. The flowers and fruit are often red.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden</span>

The Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden is a frost-free arboretum and botanical garden containing a collection of trees, shrubs, and palms, including several "champion tree" specimens. It is located on Stock Island in the municipality of Key West, Florida, United States. It is open daily. There is a nominal fee for admission, with free admission for locals on the first Sunday of every month.

Plants belonging to the genus Pachypodium vary widely from each other in some aspects, but also share a number of basic common traits. Each species is adapted to the specific environment which it inhabits, but all species of the genus share certain anatomical and metabolic traits, reflecting their common evolutionary ancestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sabiaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Sabiaceae is a family of flowering plants that were placed in the order Proteales according to the APG IV system. It comprises three genera, Meliosma, Ophiocaryon and Sabia, with 66 known species, native to tropical to warm temperate regions of southern Asia and the Americas. The family has also been called Meliosmaceae Endl., 1841, nom. rej.

<i>Pseudopanax arboreus</i> Species of tree

Pseudopanax arboreus or five finger, is a New Zealand native tree belonging to the family Araliaceae. It is one of New Zealand's more common native trees, being found widely in bush, scrub and gardens throughout both islands. The compound leaves with five to seven leaflets, hence the common name, are very characteristic of the tree and easily recognized.

<i>Celtis occidentalis</i> Species of tree

Celtis occidentalis, commonly known as the common hackberry, is a large deciduous tree native to North America. It is also known as the nettletree, beaverwood, northern hackberry, and American hackberry. It is a moderately long-lived hardwood with a light-colored wood, yellowish gray to light brown with yellow streaks.

<i>Prunus nigra</i> Species of tree

Prunus nigra, the Canada plum, Canadian plum, or black plum, is a species of Prunus native to eastern North America.

This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnifying lens. This page provides help in understanding the numerous other pages describing plants by their various taxa. The accompanying page—Plant morphology—provides an overview of the science of the external form of plants. There is also an alphabetical list: Glossary of botanical terms. In contrast, this page deals with botanical terms in a systematic manner, with some illustrations, and organized by plant anatomy and function in plant physiology.

<i>Mangifera zeylanica</i> Species of tree

Mangifera zeylanica or "Sri Lanka wild mango" is a wild species of mango tree endemic to Sri Lanka. This stately tree is the tallest member of the mango genus, Mangifera, and one of the two tallest trees in the family Anacardiaceae. The mango fruits are edible and have an excellent taste. It is called "aetamba" (ඇටඹ) or "wal amba" in Sinhala and “kaddu-ma” in Tamil. The well-known British botanist and explorer Joseph Dalton Hooker first described the tree in 1876.

<i>Vatica chinensis</i> Species of tree

Vatica chinensis is a species of flowering tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae, found in South Asia.

<i>Allagoptera caudescens</i> Species of palm

Allagoptera caudescens is a species of flowering plant in the palm family endemic to Brazil, where it is known as buri palm. The older name Polyandrococos combines the Greek words for "many" and "anther" with the name of another palm genus Cocos, and the epithet is Latin for "bearlike", referring to the hairy tomentum. It was formerly classified as Polyandrococos caudescens, the only species in the genus Polyandrococos.

This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary of leaf morphology. For other related terms, see Glossary of phytopathology, Glossary of lichen terms, and List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names.

<i>Annona senegalensis</i> Species of plant

Annona senegalensis, commonly known as African custard-apple, wild custard apple, wild soursop, abo ibobo, sunkungo, and dorgot is a species of flowering plant in the custard apple family, Annonaceae. The specific epithet, senegalensis, translates to mean "of Senegal", the country where the type specimen was collected.

<i>Achyranthes aspera</i> Species of plant

Achyranthes aspera is a species of plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropical world. It can be found in many places growing as an introduced species and a common weed. It is an invasive species in some areas, including many Pacific Islands environments.

<i>Guthriea</i> Genus of flowering plants

Guthriea capensis is an acaulescent perennial herb endemic to South Africa and occurring in cool and damp sites facing south or east in the mountains of the Cape Province, Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal. Guthriea is monotypic and was named after the botanist and mathematician Francis Guthrie by his friend the botanist Harry Bolus.

Goniothalamus tortilipetalus is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand. Murray Ross Henderson, the Scottish botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its twisted petals.

<i>Xylopia arenaria</i> Species of flowering plant

Xylopia arenaria is a species of plant in the Annonaceae family. It is native to Kenya, and Tanzania. Adolf Engler, the botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its growth in sandy places.

<i>Reinwardtiodendron anamalaiense</i> Species of flowering plants

Reinwardtiodendron anamalaiense, is a species of flowering plant within the genus Reinwardtiodendron and family Meliaceae. It is an evergreen tree species native to India, where it is endemic to the Western Ghats. It is one of six known species within the genus Reinwardtiodendron.

References

  1. IUCN SSC Global Tree Specialist Group; Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) (2020). "Canella winterana". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2020: e.T181217390A181464875. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T181217390A181464875.en . Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  2. "Canella winterana (L.) Gaertn". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 2009-10-10.
  3. Linnaeus, Carl; Murray, Johan Andreas (1784). Systema Vegetabilium (14th ed.). Typis et impensis Jo. Christ. Dieterich. pp.  443–444. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
  4. Linnaeus, Carl (1753). "Laurus foliis enerviis obovatis obtusis". Species Plantarum. p. 371.
  5. Austin, Daniel F.; Honychurch, P. Narodny (2004). Florida ethnobotany. CRC Press. pp. 162–164. ISBN   978-0-8493-2332-4.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Sargent, Charles Sprague; Faxon, Charles Edward (1891). The silva of North America. Vol. 1. Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and company. pp. 35–38. Retrieved 2009-10-11. This article incorporates text from Sargent, which is in the public domain.
  7. Canella in International Plant Names Index. (see External links below).
  8. Patrick Browne. 1756. The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica:275. T.Osborne & J. Shipton: London, UK. (See External links below).
  9. Woodville, William (1792). Medical botany. Vol. 2. London: James Phillips. p. 320.
  10. Major, Richard Henry, ed. (1847). "A Letter addressed to the Chapter of Seville by Dr. Chanca, native of that city, and physician to the fleet of Columbus, in his second voyage to the West Indies, describing the principal events which occurred during that voyage". Select letters of Christopher Columbus. Vol. 2. p. 23.