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