Cannaceae : Monocotyledons

Glabrous, erect, sometimes giant perennial herbs from sympodial, often tuberous-thickened, starchy rhizomes; mucilage canals traversing both the rhizome and aerial stem. Leaves distichously to spirally arranged, with a short, open, eligulate sheath gradually passing into the petiole, and an expanded, simple, entire lamina rolled up from one side to the other in bud; blade with a prominent, compound midrib and numerous lateral veins in a pinnate-parallel arrangement, sometimes glaucous or lanuginose from a cover of extremely long epicuticular wax rodlets.