Pale flax
Linum bienne
Family · Linaceae · Irritating
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The wild ancestor of cultivated flax, with pale blue or lilac five-petalled flowers that open in the morning and fall by midday. It is on verges and fallow land throughout the Peninsula.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Scrubland · Dunes and sand
Also known aswild flax, narrow-leaved flax
How to tell it
A slender, much branched plant with almost thread-like stems that are surprisingly hard to snap, which is the family's mark. Narrow alternate leaves with three veins. Pale blue or lilac flowers one to two centimetres. Round capsules with ten shiny seeds.
What it is confused with
Narbonne flax
Linum narbonense
Narbonne flax has intense blue flowers three to four centimetres and is a limestone plant; pale flax has small pale flowers and grows on any soil. Neither is dangerous.
Open sheet →What it is for
It is the origin of textile flax and the stem fibres really are strong, though too short to spin. The seeds contain cyanogenic glycosides like cultivated flax and are not eaten raw in quantity.