Pale Flax - Linum bienne

The pale flowers are slightly smaller than those of Flax (Linum usitatissimum), but the two can be easily confused and expert help is needed for a safe determination of species. 

Either obtain confirmation from a County Recorder before submitting a record, or submit detailed images showing key features.  We recommend that you take and retain a specimen; the County Recorder may wish to see this for confirmation. 

A herb of dry grassy places and grassland-scrub mosaics, chiefly near the sea; its habitats include cliff-slopes and coombes, path and field margins, roadsides, railway banks and old quarries. It appears to favour warm, sheltered, South facing slopes and relatively infertile, drought-prone soils.

In flower between June and September.

Annual, biennial or short-lived perennial.

Mainly occurring in the southern half of Britain – particularly around the coasts of southern England and Wales.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi & Evans, 1988) it was found in 8 of the 617 tetrads.

In the VC55 Checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as Alien; neophyte; Rare