Linum bienne Mill.
pale flax
Slender to stout, annual to short-lived perennial herb up to 80-(100) cm high. Stems glabrous, simple to much-branched at base. Stem lvs always alternate, glabrous, usually linear, narrow-elliptic to obovate at base of stem, acuminate, 1-3-nerved, entire, (5)-8-15-(20) mm long; lvs subtending infl.-branches single, linear, usually < stem lvs. Infl. of few to numerous fls in a diffuse compound dichasium or corymb; sepals elliptic, acuminate, 4-6 mm long, < capsule; inner sepals often fimbriate, at least at flowering; petals usually pale blue or violet and darker veined, sometimes white, 2-2.5× as long as sepals, 7-11 mm long; styles united for (0)-?-(1/2) length. Capsule glabrous, globose, dehiscent, 5-6-(7) mm diam.; seeds elliptic and slightly narrowed to base, shiny light to dark brown, 2.5-3.5 mm long.
N.: common throughout; S.: throughout except Westland, common in lowland E. coast areas; St.: Halfmoon Bay.
W. Europe, Mediterranean to Caucasia, Iraq, Iran 1870
Waste places, riverbeds, pasture, coastal habitats.
FL Nov-Apr.
L. bienne was first recorded by Kirk, T., Trans. Proc. N.Z. Inst. 2: 97 (1870), as the Australian L. marginale and was assumed at that time to be native to N.Z., but the plants differ from L. marginale Planchon in having styles united for at most ? length (rather than 1/2-3/4 length as in both L. marginale and in endemic N.Z. L. monogynum); in this character they match L. usitatissimum and forms of L. bienne. Pale flax has also been previously recorded in N.Z. as L. angustifolium.
