Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Malpighiales > Linaceae > Linum > Linum mysorense

Linum mysorense (common flax; cultivated flax)

Synonyms: Linum humile (heterotypic); Linum mysurense (homotypic); Linum trinervium (heterotypic)

Attributes

Edible [1]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [1]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [1]  The seed of some strains contain cyanogenic glycosides in the seed though the toxicity is low, especially if the seed is eaten slowly. It becomes more toxic if water is drunk at the same time; The cyanogenic glycosides are also present in other parts of the plant and have caused poisoning to livestock;
Lifespan [1]  Annual
Pollinators [1]  Insects, Lepidoptera
Structure [3]  Herb
Usage [1]  A fibre is obtained from the stem; It is of very high quality and is used in making cloth, sails, nets, paper, insulating material etc.The best quality flax fibre is used for making cloth. It is soft, lustrous and flexible, although not so flexible or elastic as cotton or wool;. It is stronger than cotton, rayon or wool, but weaker than ramie; Lower quality fibre is used in manufacturing of towelling, matting, rugs, twines, canvas, bags, and for quality papers such as printing currency notes; The plant is harvested just after it flowers; The yield is 0.5 to 0.9 tonnes of fibre per hectare. When used for paper making, the stems are harvested in late summer or autumn when they are two thirds yellow and are then retted; The fibre is then stripped from the stem, cooked for two hours or more with lye and then beaten in a Hollander beater; The lower quality flax straw from seed flax varieties is used in the manufacture of upholstery tow, insulating material, rugs, twine, and paper. Some of the better quality straw is used in the manufacture of cigarette and other high-grade papers; The seed contains 38 - 40% of a drying oil; It has a very wide range of applications. The paint and varnish industries consume about 80% of all the linseed oil produced. The remainder is used in items such as furniture polish, enamels, linoleum, oilcloth, printer's inks, soap making and patent leather; It is also used as a wood preservative and as a waterproofing for raincoats, slickers, and tarpaulins; The oil is also used in a spray on concrete roads to prevent ice and snow from sticking - it has the additional benefit of helping to preserve the concrete and prevent surface cracking and wear; Yields of over 4 tonnes of seed per hectare have been recorded in N. America, but yields of 2 tonnes or less are more common; A mucilage from the soaked or boiled seeds is used as a size for linen warps;
Height [1]  28 inches (0.7 m)
Width [1]  8 inches (0.2 m)
Light Preference [2]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Soil Moisture [2]  Mostly Dry
View Plants For A Future Record : Linum mysorense

Protected Areas

Emblem of

Belarus

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 2ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 4HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 5Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 6New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
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