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French Flax

Linum trigynum

Description:

An erect plant about a foot high with thin dichotomous branches. The flowers were very small, about 5 mm wide with bright yellow petals. Leaves were small, lanceolate and some had indented margins.

Habitat:

Spotted growing amongst other vegetation like dandelion, sorrel and grass by a walking track, in a national park.
Native to Northern Africa, Southern Europe and West Asia, it has established itself in other countries.
Occurrence record in Australia:
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:b...

Notes:

It was difficult to see this plant separate to the others growing in the area but the bright yellow flowers looked like little stars suspended amongst tall grass.
My thanks to Vinny for the ID.
Family: Linaceae

1 Species ID Suggestions

Vinny
Vinny 9 years ago
French Flax
Linum trigynum


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4 Comments

Leuba Ridgway
Leuba Ridgway 9 years ago

Thank you for the ID Vinny. The distribution map clearly tells us how this one has spread out to the bush.

Vinny
Vinny 9 years ago

I think you have yourself a European import there Leuba

Leuba Ridgway
Leuba Ridgway 9 years ago

Thomas Caelifera, thanks for looking at this spotting and your comments. I agree that the flower looks like Oxalis ( at a glance) which is common around here as well, but there are several differences. These flowers were much smaller in size and slightly different in structure. Also, the plant characteristics, leaves and fruit are different to Oxalis sp. Oxalis have three notched leaflets.
I like PN especially because it allows for discussions such as this so, thanks again for your input and fingers crossed I am not entirely wrong !! :)

ThomasCaelifera
ThomasCaelifera 9 years ago

You mentioned it was near sorrel- it looks a lot like a common flower that grows around here, Oxalis stricta. I don't know if it grows there at all, but maybe it is related?

Leuba Ridgway
Spotted by
Leuba Ridgway

Victoria, Australia

Spotted on Feb 2, 2015
Submitted on Feb 4, 2015

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