Revisiting Canna 'Trinacria Variegata'

A small Italian Group cultivar; variegated foliage, oval shaped, white margin, spreading habit; round stems, coloured green + purple; spikes of flowers are reflexed, yellow and white, staminodes are large, petals red; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are long and thin, coloured white; tillering is average.

Eye-catching variegated leaves, with large butter-yellow blooms, marked by this plants signature - a white stripe down the centre of each petal forming a white cross. Variegated leaves of green with pale yellow variegation parallel to the veins. There are several different strains with varying degree of variegation distinction, but the flower type and its size seems uniform between them all.

Nurserymen folk legend has it that in 1923 a consignement of Canna 'Trinacria' rhizomes was despatched to Siam, now Thailand, from a nursery in California. When it arrived at its destination and was grown out it was found to have variegated foliage. A sample was returned to the nursery with a demand for a refund or replacement as it was not what had been ordered.

This mutation was probably caused by the extreme conditions endured in transport from California to Thailand in the days before air travel. The cultivar was examined in the 1960's by Dr. Khoshoo, who stated that this was not a chimeral mutation. The earliest reference is C. 'Trinacria Variegata' in Sydney Percy-Lancaster's book, "An Amateur in an Indian Garden", 1927.

Synonyms: C. 'Bangkok', C. 'Bangkok Yellow', C. 'Bankocki', C. 'Bankok', C. 'Christ's Light', C. 'King of Siam', C. 'Minerva', C. 'Nirvana', C. 'Striped Beauty (2)', C. 'Striped Beauty of Bangkok', C. 'Stripped Beauty', C. 'Variegated', C. 'Zebra Stripe'