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Lewis flax

Linum lewisii

Also called Wild blue flax, Blue flax, Lewis' Blue Flax, Lewis' Flax, Prairie Flax, Lewis' Wild Blue Flax, Lewis' Wild Flax

Lewis flax
Photo: Skoch3, CC BY-SA 3.0

Lewis flax is a slender, durable North American wildflower with pale blue flowers that open in the morning and fade by noon. It grows best in lean, well-drained soil in full sun and is easily raised from seed.

Family
Linaceae (Lin family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly and let the soil dry between waterings; it tolerates dry conditions once established.
Soil
Lean, well-drained soil with little organic matter.
Temperature
Hardy in cold winters and tolerant of heat; suits temperate climates from sea level to high mountains.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Subarctica America to N. Mexico
Climate
temperate

About

Linum lewisii (Linum perenne var. lewisii) (Lewis flax, blue flax or prairie flax) is a perennial plant in the family Linaceae, native to western North America.

How to grow it

Blue flax is a durable wildflower in garden conditions, never becoming overly aggressive towards other plants. Plants are easily grown from seed. Blue flax grows well in lean soils without much organic matter and are healthier in well-drained soils.

Where it grows

The plant is native to western North America from Alaska south to Baja California, and from the Pacific Coast east to the Mississippi River. It grows on ridges and dry slopes, from sea level in the north up to 11,000 feet (3,400 metres) in the Sierra Nevada.

Other Linum plants

Tree Flax · Pale flax · Golden Flax · Flowering flax · Flax · Blue flax · Linum strictum · Flax · Flax

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Linum lewisii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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