Linum grandiflorum

Red Flax ( Linum grandiflorum )

The Red Flax ( Linum grandiflorum ), also called Prachtlein, is a species in the genus flax ( Linum ).

Description

The Red Flax is an annual herbaceous plant. With its multi-branched from the root, but slender, upright growth habit reaching a height of 30 to 45 centimeters and a width of up to 15 centimeters. The gray-green leaves are at the base as well as in young leaves densely crowded like roof tiles and are otherwise open, simple and ovate - lanceolate.

The outermost branches of the plants form a loose panicle, at its end are the terminal florets. The flowers are great for a wild species, the flowering period is short-lived.

The sepals are green, erect, rigid, hairy membranous and setose at the edge. They are lanceolate - shaped commended and overlap each other like roof tiles. The petals are broad reverse- egg-shaped, nailed and extremely finely serrated, from pink to scarlet color, black dashed lines on the nails and the inside white.

The stamens are fused into a relatively long cylindrical tube, the anthers large. The ovary is oval and tapers to a thick pen, the scars are long, linear and fluffy.

Distribution and systematics

The plant is endemic in Algeria. You get there in the coastal region ( Muaskar, Oran ) before, so it is one of the most south -occurring species of the genus.

System

Linum grandiflorum was first described in 1798 by René Louiche Desfontaines. He belongs in the section Linum, and thus in the relationship among the majority of European species.

Use

Red Flax is a valued ornamental plant. There are also garden forms with pink and purple flowers, the cultivar ' Rubrum ' has dark purple flowers.

Evidence

• William Jackson Hooker: Linum grandiflorum - Large -flowered Flax. In: Curtis 's Botanical Magazine. Volume 82, No. 12, 1856 ISSN 0265-3842, Tab 4956, online.
• Cheers Gordon (ed.): Botanica. The ABC's of plants. 10,000 species in text and image. Könemann, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-8331-1600-5, p 533