35.) LINACEAE & ZYGOPHYLLACEAE
LINACEAE - Flax family
LINUM L.
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Linum bienne Mill. (Pale Flax) / Grassland Uncommon An uncommon plant with a very patchy distribution but locally frequent in places; occurring in species-rich grassland, banks and dry grassy slopes. Several recent records made from Bristol by D. Peters show it may perhaps be over-looked in places and that it has a persistent seed bank: near the base of a recently planted tree on a grass bank under the M32 near Eastville Park in 2022; Westbury Wildlife Park in 2022; and appearing on bare ground on Clifton Down after the clearance of a long standing scrubby copse. The first local (and national) record was made by Turner (1562) "I have sene flax or lynt...wilde in Sommersetshyre wythin a mile of Welles. It hath fewer bowles in the top than the sowen flax hath".
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Linum usitatissimum L. (var. usitatissimum) (Flax) / General Uncommon A fairly frequent casual of roadsides, tips and other disturbed ground; formerly occurring as a crop relic or grain alien but now more often as a birdseed alien. Occasionally white forms occur. It is rarely grown as a crop in our region but those produced for linen (fibres, extracted from the dried, beaten stems) use tall unbranched cultivars and those for linseed-oil (extracted from its dried ripened seeds) are shorter and branched. It is believed to have been domesticated from Pale Flax - Linum bienne in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East around 30,000 years ago and arriving in Europe by the Neolithic, 5000 years ago. The specific epiphet usitatissimum, means 'most useful'. Today France is the biggest producer of Flax in the world. During WWII, a horrific military operation known as 'Operation Vegetarian' was planned, in which Flax was to be used as a biological weapon by infecting linseed cakes with Anthrax spores and dropping them by plane into pastures across Germany. The cattle would then ingest the cakes and contract anthrax, along with those who ate the infected meat. Testing was carried out in 1942 on the island of Gruinard - just off the north-west coast of Scotland with devestating results and 5,000,000 of these linseed cakes were produced but fortunately the operation was called off. Only in 1990 was the island declared safe of Anthrax.
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Linum perenne L. (Perennial Flax) General Very Rare One small patch (not the endemic ssp. anglicum of eastern England but the cultivar 'Blue Sapphire') was found in a newly created wildflower meadow at College Green in 2023 on separate occasions by D. Peters and R.D. Randall. It looks strikingly similar to Pale Flax but is more robust and the the sepals are about half as long as the ripe capsules (as opposed to being the same length) and are apiculate at the apex (instead of acuminate), and the stigmas are either above or below the height of the anthers (not level with them).
[Also a record from near Uphill in 2008 and 2013 in Bishopworth (iRecord). Abi will check]
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Linum grandiflorum Desf. (Scarlet Flax) General Very Rare Increasingly used in ornamental meadow mixes and may occur as a casual. Recorded at Rowberrow, North Somerset in 2010s by ? [BSBI record] and on a roadside (probably persisting from an ornamental sowing) at Riverside Park, Severn Beach in 2023 by D. Peters.
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Linum catharticum L. (var. catharticum) (Fairy Flax) / Grassland Uncommon Well-distributed and locally frequent on dry calcareous soils in species-rich grassland, unimproved pastures, commons, limestone heaths, and along stony tracks, verges and dunes. This delicate species has made an alarming decline in recent years due to changes in land management though its seed bank is long-lived. No longer is it as abundant as past floras exclaim it to be. Otherwise known as Purging Flax.
ZYGOPHYLLACEAE - Caltrop family
TRIBULUS L.
- Tribulus terrestris L. (var. terrestris) (Small Caltrops) 1931 General Extinct A native of southern Eurasia and Africa; recorded at Portishead Dock in 1931 by Miss Grignon (Sandwith, 1932) and at Ashton Gate in 1937 by ? [specimens in BMAG].
List:
- Linum bienne Mill. (Pale Flax) / Grassland
- Linum usitatissimum L. (var. usitatissimum - Kew) (Flax) / General
- Linum perenne L. (Perennial Flax)
- Linum grandiflorum Desf. (Scarlet Flax)
- Linum catharticum L. (var. catharticum - Kew) (Fairy Flax) / Grassland
- Tribulus terrestris L. (var. terrestris - Kew) (Small Caltrops) 1931 General
Species to add:
- Linum perenne L. (Perennial Flax)
- Linum grandiflorum Desf. (Scarlet Flax)
Sources: