[2] They both are used as a provincial flag representing Scania (Swedish: Skåne), the southernmost province of Sweden.

assert that the cross flag represents the entire Skåneland, which is not just Scania but also Blekinge and Halland.

County of Scania, Skåne län, also has an official flag consisting of the banner of arms:[2] on a field of yellow, a red griffin head, crowned blue.

A disputed hypothesis claims that the cross flag is derived from the coat of arms of the Danish Archbishop of Lund.

The modern Scanian cross flag was for a long period believed to have been created in the 1870s at the private initiative of the historical professor Martin Weibull.