White shrubby flax
Linum suffruticosum
Family · Linaceae · Harmless
The white flax of arid limestone, forming woody tufts of hard narrow leaves and opening white flowers with a pinkish or violet centre, always turned to the sun.
Uplands · Scrubland · Fields and pasture
Also known asshrubby white flax
How to tell it
A subshrub with a woody base and many slender upright stems. Narrow, stiff leaves with margins rolled under and rough to the touch. White five-petalled flowers, two to three centimetres, with a pink or lilac eye. The petals drop at the end of the day. Range: mainly a Spanish plant, practically absent from Portugal.
What it is confused with
Narbonne flax
Linum narbonense
Colour decides: Narbonne flax has intense blue flowers and soft leaves; this has white flowers with a pink eye and stiff leaves with rolled margins. Neither is toxic.
What it is for
No use
It is an excellent indicator of limestone soil, and grows beside rosemary and thyme on the same stony slopes.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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