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Linum
usitatissimum L.
Standardized Common
Name: Flax
Other Common Name: Linseed
Family: Linaceae
Taxonomy: Linum
includes nearly 200 species native to temperate and subtropical habitats,
especially in the Medierranean region. Linum usitatissimum is classified
within Sect. Linum, whose species have blue flowers and alternate,
glabrous leaves without glands. It grows wild from western Europe to southwest
Asia and has been widely cultivated.
Description: Annual herb; stem
erect or ascending, 30–90 cm high, unbranched except at apex. Leaves alternate,
sessile, linear, 1.5–4 cm long, with 3 parallel veins. Inflorescences terminal,
2–10-flowered. Sepals 5, 5–9 mm long, overlapping, ovate with short acuminate
apex, conspicuous midvein; margins of outer sepals entire, those of inner
sepals dry and ciliate. Petals 5, blue, 10–15 mm long, with short claw and
spreading obdeltoid limb. Fertile stamens 5, staminodes 5; filaments fused at
the base; anthers blue. Ovary superior, compound; styles 5, with linear stigmas.
Fruit a loculicidal capsule, 6–9 mm long, globose, with beak ca. 1 mm long,
5-valved, 10-seeded. Seeds flat, mucilaginous, ovate to lanceolate-oblong, 4–6
mm long, shiny, brown.
Parts
in Commerce:
Seeds
Identification:
- Narrowly ovate
(4–6 mm X 2–3 mm), flattened
- Base rounded
- Apex acute,
point rounded and curved to one side
- Surface brown,
glossy, minutely pitted
- Pale yellow
ridge along one edge
- Hilum and
micropyle along edge near pointed end, on concave side of apical curve
- Contains two
large flat cotyledons surrounded by thin layer of endosperm, both
yellowish
- Taste
mucilaginous, oily
- Odor very faint,
unless ground
- When soaked in
water, swells and produces mucilage
References:
Davis PH. Linum. In: Davis PH, ed. Flora
of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, vol. 2. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press; 1967:425–450.
Ockendon DJ, and Walters SM. Linum. In: Tutin TG, Heywood VH, Burges NA, et al.,
eds. Flora Europaea. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press; 1968:206–211.
Youngken HW. Text-Book of Pharmacognosy, 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: The
Blakiston Company; 1943:485–487.
Figure 39: Linum usitatissimum seed.
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