Upright yellow flax
Linum strictum
Family · Linaceae · Harmless
The wild flax with small yellow flowers on stiff upright stems, filling dry scrub and limestone verges in spring. From the same family as spinning flax, but thin as wire.
Where it grows
Scrubland · Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Uplands
Also known asstiff flax
In flower
How to tell it
Very straight, stiff, almost unbranched stems with narrow pointed leaves, rough along the margin. Yellow five-petalled flowers that drop quickly. The whole habit is vertical and taut, which separates it from the blue flaxes.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use. The fibres are too fine to spin, unlike cultivated flax, and the seed is not used.