Common Name: FLAX FAMILY Habit: Annual, perennial herb [shrub, tree, vine]. Stem: generally erect [climbing], branched, glabrous to hairy. Leaf: cauline, alternate to opposite or whorled, simple, generally sessile, linear to obovate, entire to minutely toothed or ciliate, teeth occasionally gland-tipped; stipules small, dark-colored, spheric glands, or 0. Inflorescence: raceme, panicle, or cyme [spike]. Flower: bisexual, radial; sepals [4]5, free; petals = sepals in number, free to adherent (basally fused); stamens 5[4 or 10], alternate petals, filaments fused basally into a cup-like structure surrounding ovary base; staminodes present, alt stamens at cup rim, or 0; ovary superior, carpels 2--5, fused, styles 2--5, = carpel number, free or partly fused. Fruit: capsule, generally dehiscent [drupe in some tropical species], generally 10-seeded. Genera In Family: 13 genera, +- 250 species: cosmopolitan, most temperate, some cultivated. Note:Hesperolinon, Sclerolinon are evolutionary lineages within Linum. eFlora Treatment Author: Adam C. Schneider, William A. Freyman, and Joshua R. McDill
Common Name: FLAX Habit: Annual, perennial herb. Leaf: generally alternate, occasionally partially opposite [whorled], +- sessile, generally glabrous; stipule glands present or 0. Inflorescence: raceme or cyme. Flower: inner 2 sepals overlapped by outer 3, all margins generally translucent, generally ciliate or toothed, glandular or not; petals 5--25 mm, generally ephemeral; staminodes 0 or 5; carpels 5, ovary chambers 10, styles free or fused, stigmas 5, >= style width. Fruit: 3--10 mm diam, generally spheric, dehiscent, generally 5 or 10 segmented. Seed: 5 or 10, lens-shaped, rounded, brown to black, generally glossy. Etymology: (Latin: flax) Note:Linum usitatissimum cultivated for fiber (linen) and seed for oil and food; Linum perenne, Linum grandiflorum, ornamental; some Eurasian species used in cancer treatment. eFlora Treatment Author: Adam C. Schneider, William A. Freyman, and Joshua R. McDill Reference: [Rogers 1984 North Amer Flora Ser II 12:1--56]
Linum bienne Mill.
NATURALIZED Habit: Biennial to weak perennial herb, 6--60 cm. Stem: glabrous. Leaf: 5--25 mm, linear to lance-linear; stipule glands 0. Flower: sepals 4--5 mm, ovate to lanceolate, margins translucent, inner sepals minutely ciliate or toothed; petals 6--10 mm, light blue; styles free, generally <= 2 mm, stigmas linear to club-shaped. Fruit: 4--6 mm wide, dehiscing into 10 +- adherent segments. Seed: 2--3 mm, dark brown to black. Chromosomes: 2n=30. Ecology: Garden escape; grassland, woodland, disturbed places, especially coastal; Elevation: < 1000 m. Bioregional Distribution: NW, CaRF, n SNF, GV, CW; Distribution Outside California: native to Eurasia. Flowering Time: Mar--Jun Note: Generally considered progenitor of cultivation flax, Linum usitatissimum. Synonyms: Linum angustifolium Huds. Jepson eFlora Author: Adam C. Schneider, William A. Freyman, and Joshua R. McDill Reference: [Rogers 1984 North Amer Flora Ser II 12:1--56] Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Linum Next taxon: Linum grandiflorum
Citation for this treatment: Adam C. Schneider, William A. Freyman, and Joshua R. McDill 2017, Linum bienne, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 5, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=31144, accessed on April 24, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 24, 2024.
Geographic subdivisions for Linum bienne:
NW, CaRF, n SNF, GV, CW
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
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Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).