Canella is a monospecific genus in the family Canellaceae (order Canellales), containing the single species Canella winterana. It is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree native to the Caribbean, south-eastern Mexico, southern Florida, and Venezuela, reaching 25 to 30 feet (up to 50 feet in Jamaica) with a straight trunk, slender spreading branches, and a compact round-headed crown. The bark is scaly, aromatic, and pale yellow inside, while the leaves are obovate, glossy deep green, coriaceous, and 3.5 to 5 inches long. The flowers are perfect and regular, with three persistent sepals, five white or rose-colored fleshy petals, and about twenty stamens monadelphously fused into a tube. They open in autumn in many-flowered terminal panicles. The fruit is a globular bright crimson berry that ripens in March and April and is eaten by many birds. The wood is exceptionally dense (specific gravity 0.9893), dark red-brown, very hard, and close-grained. The bark of Canella winterana is used as a spice resembling cinnamon, giving rise to its common names: cinnamon bark, wild cinnamon, and white cinnamon. The genus was erected in 1756 by Patrick Browne and was one of the first American trees noted by European explorers.
Etymology
The name Canella is the diminutive of the Latin canna (a cane or reed). It was first applied to the bark of the Old World cassia tree (Cinnamomum aromaticum) from the quill-like roll the bark formed when drying, and was later transferred to this West Indian tree. The genus was erected in 1756 by the Irish botanist Patrick Browne. The species epithet winterana is an artifact from a period when this plant was confused with Winter's bark (Drimys winteri), which itself is named for the English sea captain William Winter.
Distribution
Canella is widely distributed across the Caribbean basin. It is native to the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Hispaniola (both the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Windward Islands. On the mainland, it occurs in south-eastern Mexico and Venezuela. In the United States, it is restricted to the Florida Keys, where it was first discovered by the botanist J. L. Blodgett. It typically grows as an understory tree in dense tropical hardwood forests.
Cultivation
Canella was introduced into England in 1738 and first cultivated in Europe by the English botanist Philip Miller. It is valued ornamentally in southern Florida for its white bark, brilliant deep green foliage, and crimson fruit, making it one of the most ornamental smaller trees of the region.
History
Canella was one of the first American trees to attract European attention and appears in the accounts of many early voyages to the Americas. An early description noted "a tree whose leaf had the finest smell of cloves that I have ever met with," reflecting the aromatic qualities that drew interest to the plant. It was formally described as a genus by Patrick Browne in 1756.
