In 1732 Dillenius made a list of the plants cultivated in ‘Hortus Elthamensis’, the garden of J. Sherard in Eltham (now in Southeast London) in England, in which he described and illustrated Canna flaccida, originating from South Carolina, USA.

He did not realize his ‘Cannacorus glaucophyllos, ampliore flore, iridis palustris facie’ was the third species of Canna then known to exist (cf. typification of C. glauca).