Rhizomes fleshy. Leaves: sheath glabrous; blade narrowly ovate to ovate, 20--60 ´ 10--30 cm, base obtuse to narrowly cuneate, apex shortly acuminate to acute, abaxially and adaxially glabrous. Inflorescences racemes, sometimes branched, bearing 1- to 2-flowered cincinni, 6--20 per inflorescence; primary bracts to 15 cm; secondary bracts to 9 cm; floral bracts persistent, broadly obovate to narrowly (ob)ovate(-triangular), 0.5--3 ´ 0.5--1.5 cm, apex entire, often glaucous; bracteoles (ovate-)triangular, 0.5--2 ´ 0.3--0.8 cm, apex entire. Flowers red to yellow-orange, never pure yellow (except in some hybrid cultivars), 4.5--7.5 cm; pedicels 0.2--1 cm, to 1.5 cm in fruit; sepals narrowly triangular, 0.9--1.7 ´ 0.2--0.5 cm; petals erect, 4--6.5 cm, tube 0.5--1.5 cm, lobes lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 3.5--5 ´ 0.4--0.7 cm; staminodes 3--4, narrowly obovate to spatulate, 4.5--7.5 cm, free part 0.3--0.5 cm wide, apex rounded, acute, or cleft; labellum reflexed, narrowly oblong, approximately equal to other staminodes. Capsules ellipsoid to nearly globose, 1.5--3 ´ 1.5--2 cm. Seeds black, globose to nearly globose, 5--8 ´ 4--6.7 mm diam. 2n = 18.

Flowering primarily spring--summer; fruiting summer--early fall. Often, if not always, in secondary growth and waste places; 0--100 m; apparently introduced; Fla., La., S.C., Tex.

Canna indica is probably native to neotropics and is now common throughout tropics and subtropics.