Canella

{{Short description|Genus of trees}} {{About|the plant|people with the name|Canella (surname)}} {{Distinguish|Canela (disambiguation){{!}}Canela}} {{Speciesbox |image = Canella winterana Guadeloupe.JPG |status = LC |status_system = IUCN3.1 |status_ref = <ref>{{cite iucn |author=IUCN SSC Global Tree Specialist Group |author2=Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) |date=2020 |title=''Canella winterana'' |article-number=e.T181217390A181464875 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T181217390A181464875.en |access-date=7 December 2022}}</ref> |genus = Canella |parent_authority = P. Browne, 1756 |species = winterana |authority = (L.) Gaertn., 1788<ref>{{GRIN |name=''Canella winterana'' (L.) Gaertn. |id=8848 |accessdate=2009-10-10}}</ref> |synonyms = ''Canella alba'' Murray<ref>{{cite book |title= Systema Vegetabilium |publisher= Typis et impensis Jo. Christ. Dieterich |first1=Carl |last1=Linnaeus |author1-link=Carl Linnaeus |first2=Johan Andreas |last2=Murray |author2-link=Johan Andreas Murray |year=1784 |edition=14th |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_jN0ijyyT9eIC/page/n463 443]–444 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_jN0ijyyT9eIC |access-date=2009-10-10}}</ref> ''Laurus winterana'' L.<ref>{{cite book |title=Species Plantarum |first1=Carl |last1=Linnaeus |author1-link=Carl Linnaeus |year=1753 |chapter=Laurus foliis enerviis obovatis obtusis|chapter-url=http://www.botanicus.org/page/358390 |page=371|title-link=Species Plantarum }}</ref> }}

'''''Canella''''' is a monospecific genus containing the species ''Canella winterana'', a tree native to the Caribbean, south-eastern Mexico, southern Florida, and Venezuela.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Canella winterana (L.) Gaertn. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:146013-1 |access-date=2025-09-07 |website=Plants of the World Online |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=WFO Plant List {{!}} World Flora Online |url=https://wfoplantlist.org/taxon/wfo-0000583977-2025-06 |access-date=2025-09-07 |website=wfoplantlist.org}}</ref> Its bark is used as a spice similar to cinnamon, giving rise to the common names '''cinnamon bark''', '''wild cinnamon''', and '''white cinnamon'''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Florida ethnobotany |first1=Daniel F. |last1=Austin |first2=P. Narodny |last2=Honychurch |pages=162–164 |year=2004 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-8493-2332-4}}</ref> ==Description== Flowers perfect, regular; sepals 3, imbricated, persistent; petals 5, imbricated; stamens monadelphous. Fruit baccate, indehiscent, 2 to 4-seeded.<ref name="Sargent" />

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.<ref name="Sargent" />

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 {{convert|61.65|lb}}.<ref name="Sargent" />

''Canella'' attains in Florida a height of {{convert|25|to|30|ft|m}}, with a straight trunk {{convert|8|to|10|in|cm}} in diameter. On the mountains of Jamaica, it is said to grow sometimes to the height of {{convert|50|ft}}. The principal branches are slender, horizontal, and spreading, forming a compact round-headed top. The light gray bark of the trunk is {{cvt|1/8|in}} thick, the surface is broken into many short thick scales rarely more than {{cvt|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 {{cvt|3.5|-|5|in}} long, {{cvt|1.5|-|2|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.<ref name="Sargent" />

== 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.<ref name="Sargent">{{cite book |last1=Sargent |first1=Charles Sprague |author1-link=Charles Sprague Sargent |first2=Charles Edward |last2=Faxon |author2-link=Charles Edward Faxon |title=The silva of North America |volume=1 |year=1891 |pages=35–38 |location=Boston, New York |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin and company |url=http://botanicus.org/page/1322218 |access-date=2009-10-11}} This article incorporates text from Sargent, which is in the public domain.</ref> The genus ''Canella'' was erected in 1756 by Patrick Browne.<ref name="ipnicanella">''Canella'' in International Plant Names Index. (see ''External links'' below).</ref><ref name="browne1756">Patrick Browne. 1756. ''The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica'':275. T.Osborne & J. Shipton: London, UK. (See ''External links'' below).</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Medical botany |first=William |last=Woodville |volume=2 |page=320 |year=1792 |location=London |publisher=James Phillips |url=http://botanicus.org/page/677534}}</ref>

==Distribution== ''Canella'' is widely distributed. Amongst the islands of the Caribbean, Canella is native to the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Windward Islands. It is also native to south-eastern Mexico and Venezuela.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

In Florida, it is found in the Florida Keys where it is not uncommon. It is here 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''.<ref name="Sargent" />

''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:<ref name="Sargent" />

{{quotation|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<ref>{{cite book |editor=Major, Richard Henry |editor-link=Richard Henry Major |title=Select letters of Christopher Columbus |volume=2 |year=1847 |chapter=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 |page=23 }}</ref>}}

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.<ref name="Sargent" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.ipni.org/ipni/advPlantNameSearch.do;jsessionid=6F88FD683733E6941C51A450D8969C8F?find_family=&find_genus=Canella&find_species=&find_infrafamily=&find_infragenus=&find_infraspecies=&find_authorAbbrev=&find_includePublicationAuthors=on&find_includePublicationAuthors=off&find_includeBasionymAuthors=on&find_includeBasionymAuthors=off&find_publicationTitle=&find_isAPNIRecord=on&find_isAPNIRecord=false&find_isGCIRecord=on&find_isGCIRecord=false&find_isIKRecord=on&find_isIKRecord=false&find_rankToReturn=all&output_format=normal&find_sortByFamily=on&find_sortByFamily=off&query_type=by_query&back_page=plantsearch ''Canella''] {{color|green|At:}} [http://www.ipni.org/ipni/plantnamesearchpage.do Plant Names] {{color|green|At:}} [http://www.ipni.org/ IPNI] * [http://www.botanicus.org/page/1148093 ''Canella''] {{color|green|In:}} [http://www.botanicus.org/page/1147804 ''The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica''] {{color|green|At:}} [http://www.botanicus.org/creator/676 Patrick Browne] {{color|green|At:}} [http://www.botanicus.org/browse/authors Authors] {{color|green|At:}} [http://www.botanicus.org/ Botanicus]

Category:Canellales genera Category:Monotypic magnoliid genera Category:Spices Category:Trees of the Caribbean Category:Flora of the Neotropical realm