Limonia, Kawista, Kaitha, Kavath - Plant

Planting and care

Exotic, tropical creatures, cannas need lots of sunshine and fertile, moist soil but you don’t have to pamper them. Cannas can be started in the house in small pots if your gardening season is short. Where not hardy, plant outdoors in early summer—around the same time you’d put in tomato plants.

Caring for Limonia

• Cannas do best with a good supply of water, so water the plants during the summer if the rainfall is less than 1 inch per week.
• Water freely in a dry spell.
• Keep a thin layer of mulch around cannas to help retain moisture as well.
• Stake tall varieties if needed.

Typical uses of Limonia

Special features: If you need to lift your cannas, do so right after the first killing frost. Dig one foot away from the stem so that the rhizome (roots that shoot) is not damaged. Loosen the soil and lift out the clump. Shake off the dirt and cut off the tops.

Culinary use: The fruit is eaten plain, blended into an assortment of drinks and sweets, or well-preserved as jam. The scooped-out pulp from its fruits is eaten uncooked with or without sugar, or is combined with coconut milk and palm-sugar syrup and drunk as a beverage, or frozen as an ice cream.

Ornamental use: The plant is used for ornamental purpose.

Medicinal use: A hundred grams of fruit pulp contains 31 grams of carbohydrate and two grams of protein, equivalent to nearly 140 calories.

References

http://www.almanac.com/plant/cannas http://www.flowersofindia.net/risearch/search.php?query=Limonia+Acidissima&stpos=0&stype=AND