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Blue flax

Linum perenne

Also called Perennial Flax

Blue flax
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Hagen Graebner assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5

Blue flax is a slender perennial herb from Europe, grown for its open sky-blue flowers on tall, wiry stems. It needs full sun and well-drained soil; it is short-lived in wet conditions.

Family
Linaceae (Lin family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water moderately while establishing, then allow the soil to dry out between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained, sandy or gritty soil; tolerates poor, lean ground.
Temperature
Hardy to about -25 °C; grows well in cool to warm temperate conditions.
How easy
Easy
Native range
EC. Europe to Siberia and China
Climate
temperate

About

Linum perenne, the perennial flax, blue flax or lint, is a flowering plant in the family Linaceae, native to Europe, primarily in the Alps and locally in England. It has been introduced into North America, where it can be found on mountain ridges, wooded areas, and in sandy plain habitats of the sagebrush steppe, growing near sagebrush and rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus).

It is a slender herbaceous perennial plant growing to 90 centimetres (3 ft) tall from a fairly woody root crown, with tough, unbranched stems, and many spirally arranged narrow lanceolate leaves 1–2.5 cm long. The flowers are blue, 2.5–5 cm (1–2 in) in diameter, and have five petals. The flowers will fall off if the stems are broken.

Other Linum plants

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

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Linum perenne 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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