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Vascular Plants of California
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Hesperolinon
WESTERN FLAX

Higher Taxonomy
Family: LinaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key

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
Hesperolinon
Habit: Annual, erect, 3--50 cm, generally branched (at least in inflorescence). Leaf: generally alternate (occasionally opposite or whorled), generally sessile, 4--35 mm, 1--3(6) mm wide, thread-like or linear to ovate or obovate, margin gland-toothed or entire; stipular glands present or 0. Inflorescence: generally open or dense cyme, bracted; pedicel thread-like, generally ascending to erect. Flower: sepals lanceolate to ovate, acute or acuminate, glabrous or hairy, or margins glandular-ciliate; petals free, 1--12 mm, yellow, white, or pink, generally with small appendages near base; staminodes 0; carpels 2--3, stigmas linear (+- = style in width). Fruit: smooth. Seed: +- triangular in ×-section, acute.
Species In Genus: 12--13 species: especially California, often on serpentine. Etymology: (Greek, Latin: western flax) Note: Hesperolinon serpentinum, used in TJM (1993), is not validly published.
Jepson eFlora Author: Joshua R. McDill
Reference: Sharsmith 1961 Univ Calif Publ Bot 32:235--314
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Key to Hesperolinon

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Citation for this treatment: Joshua R. McDill 2012, Hesperolinon, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=8859, 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.