HAWAII AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 
HONOLULU, HAWAII 
Under the supervision of the 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 54 
Washington. D. C July, 1924 
EDIBLE CANNA IN HAWAII 
By H. L. Chung, Specialist in Tropical Agronomy, and J. C. Ripperton, Chemist 
CONTENTS 
Page 
I nt roduct ion 1 
Botanical description 2 
Climatic and soil requirements 3 
Methods of culture 3 
Yield 6 
Keeping qualities 6 
Page. 
Insects and diseases 7 
Composition 7 
Feeding value 12 
Edible canna starch 13 
Uses 15 
Summary 16 
INTRODUCTION 
Edible canna (Canna edulis), known also as the Queensland arrow- 
root, Australian arrowroot, adeira (Peru), and "tous-les-mois*' (West 
Indies), is indigenous to South America, where it is found growing in 
Brazil, Peru, and Trinidad. 1 In many tropical countries the tub- 
erous roots are cooked as a vegetable, but in South America and in 
several of the colonies of Australia the plant is cultivated chiefly for 
the sake of its starch. 2 
The exact length of time edible canna has been growing in Hawaii is 
not known, but it is thought that the plant was introduced into the 
islands about the year 1898. 3 The first planting at the Agricultural 
Experiment Station was made December 8, 1915, from a small 
quantity of tubers received from Judge J. A. Matthewman, Kailua, 
Hawaii. A large number of the plants were afterwards distributed 
throughout the Territory for the purpose of utilizing the tubers for 
food in case of necessity during the food shortage incident to the 
World War. The tubers are not popular as a vegetable in Hawaii 
because of the length of time required to cook them. The tops, 
however, furnish a large amount of excellent forage for cattle and 
poultry, and the plant now occupies a well-established place among 
stock feeds. 
n-h has been manufactured from edible canna for more than 
50 yean in Queensland, Australia, but the industry was not 
successfully launched in Hawaii until L922, although 1 he experiment 
i Textbook of tropical agriculture, p. 2>>:5. U. A. Aiford Nicholls. 
1 Tropical agriculture: A treatise on the culture, propagation, commerce, Bad consumption of the prin- 
cipal products of the vegetable kingdom, p. 344, 345. I'. L. EUmmonds. 
i. Rpt. 1917, p. 51. 
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