Linum usitatissimum |
Linum kingii |
|
---|---|---|
common flax, cultivated flax, flax-seed, lin cultivé, lin-seed |
King's flax, perennial yellow flax |
|
Habit | Herbs, annual, 20–100 cm, glabrous or glabrate throughout. | Herbs, perennial, caudex woody, 5–30 cm, glabrous and glaucous. |
Stems | erect, unbranched or few-branched at base (all flowering). |
ascending to erect from decumbent base, branched from base. |
Leaves | divergent; blade linear to linear-lanceolate, 10–40 × 1.5–5 mm. |
alternate throughout or proximal opposite, divergent, erect or spreading; stipular glands absent; blade narrowly lanceolate, 5–25 × 1–3 mm, thick (basal leaves), margins entire, not ciliate, apex rounded to subacute; 1-nerved. |
Inflorescences | open panicles. |
panicles or thyrses. |
Pedicels | erect in fruit, to 20–25 mm. |
1–5 mm. |
Flowers | homostylous; sepals ovate, 6–9 mm, margins of inner sepals minutely ciliate, outer ciliate, apex acuminate; petals usually blue, rarely white, obovate, 10–15 mm; stamens 5–7 mm; anthers 1–1.5 mm; staminodia present; styles distinct or connate at base, 3–6 mm; stigmas linear or clavate. |
sepals persistent, lanceolate to ovate or broadly oblong, 2.5–4.5 mm, margins not scarious, inner glandular-toothed, outer entire or sparsely glandular-toothed near apex, apex acute to ± obtuse, not acuminate; petals bright yellow, oblanceolate to obovate, 5–12 mm; stamens 3–8 mm; anthers 1.5–2.5 mm; staminodia absent; styles distinct, 4–7 mm; stigmas capitate. |
Capsules | ovoid to subglobose, 6–10 × 5–10 mm, apex rounded, dehiscing incompletely, segments falling freely, margins ciliate or not. |
ovoid-pyriform, 2.3–4 × 2.8–3.6 mm, apex pointed (easily crushed), freely dehiscing into 10, 1-seeded segments, segments persistent on plant, false septa incomplete, proximal margins ciliate. |
Seeds | 4–6 × 2.5–3 mm. |
2–2.7 × 1–1.4 mm. |
2n | = 30. |
= 26. |
Linum usitatissimum |
Linum kingii |
|
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Sep. | Flowering May–Aug. |
Habitat | Disturbed areas, roadsides, abandoned homesteads, fields. | Open slopes, often on barren alkaline clay or rocky calcareous substrates. |
Elevation | 0–2400 m. (0–7900 ft.) | 1400–3400 m. (4600–11200 ft.) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NF; NS; NT; ON; QC; SK; Eurasia [Introduced in North America; introduced also in c Mexico, Central America, s South America, Pacific Islands (New Zealand)]
|
CO; ID; NV; UT; WY
|
Discussion | Linum usitatissimum has been cultivated since antiquity, and it is this cultivated form that has naturalized in the wild. Flax fibers twisted to make rope or dyed for fabric dated 32,000–26,000 years before present were found in a cave in Dzudzuana, Georgia (E. Kvavadze et al. 2009). Stem fibers of L. usitatissimum are used to make linen; the seeds are pressed to produce linseed oil; the rest of the seeds are compacted into cakes and used as fodder. Linum usitatissimum is the only species in the flora area except L. bienne that has linear stigmas and minutely ciliate inner sepals. It can be distinguished from L. bienne by its larger, apically rounded capsules. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Linum kingii is low, compact, and much branched. All parts of the flowers are yellow. The corolla is nearly rotate, the petals are abruptly narrowed to a claw, the styles are at right angles to the flower axis, and the anthers are relatively large. Linum kingii is extremely variable in habit and in size of floral and vegetative parts, even within a population or within a single plant (C. M. Rogers 1984). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 374. | FNA vol. 12, p. 382. |
Parent taxa | Linaceae > Linum > sect. Linum | Linaceae > Linum > sect. Linopsis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cathartolinum kingii, Mesyniopsis kingii | |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 277. (1753) | S. Watson: Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 49. (1871) |
Web links |
|