Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Asparagales > Asphodelaceae > Phormium > Phormium tenax

Phormium tenax (New Zealand flax)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Phormium tenax (called flax in New Zealand English; harakeke in Māori; New Zealand flax outside New Zealand; and New Zealand hemp in historical nautical contexts) is an evergreen perennial plant native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island that is an important fibre plant and a popular ornamental plant. The plant grows as a clump of long, straplike leaves, up to two metres long, from which arises a much taller flowering shoot, with dramatic yellow or red flowers.
View Wikipedia Record: Phormium tenax

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Phormium tenax

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Low
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Leaf Type [2]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Structure [3]  Shrub
Usage [2]  A very high quality pliable fibre is obtained from the leaves; It is used in the manufacture of ropes (they are not very strong; The split leaves can be used to make nets, cloaks, sandals, straps etc; They are also used in making paper and basket making; A strip of a leaf is an excellent emergency string substitute for tying up plants in the garden, it can be tied into a knot without breaking; The leaf pulp, after the fibre has been removed, can be fermented to make alcohol; A gum found in the leaves is used as a paper glue; A brown dye is obtained from the flowers; A terra-cotta dye is obtained from the seedpods; A mauve can also be obtained; The flowers are rich in tannin;
Height [2]  9.84 feet (3 m)
Width [2]  6.56 feet (2 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Phormium tenax

Protected Areas

Prey / Diet

Phormium tenax (New Zealand flax)[4]

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Scolypopa australis (Passionvine planthopper)[4]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 4Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 5HONEYEATERS AND THE NEW ZEALAND FOREST FLORA: THE UTILISATION AND PROFITABILITY OF SMALL FLOWERS, Isabel Castro and Alastair W. Robertson, New Zealand Journal of Ecology (1997) 21(2): 169-179
♦ 6New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 7Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 8Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0