Editing Flax (section)

{{Short description|Flowering plant in the flax family}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2024}}
{{cs1 config|name-list-style=vanc|display-authors=3}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem Texte (Plate 16) BHL303594.jpg
| image_alt = 
| image_caption = Botanical illustration from 1887
| genus = Linum
| species = usitatissimum
| authority = [[L.]]
| subdivision_ranks = Varieties
| subdivision_ref = <ref name="POWO">{{cite POWO |id=544772-1 |title=''Linum usitatissimum'' L. |access-date=29 January 2025}}</ref>
| subdivision = {{Species list
 | L. usitatissimum var. stenophyllum | (Boiss.) Rech.f.
 | L. usitatissimum var. usitatissimum |
}}
| synonyms_ref = <ref>{{Cite web |title=Linum usitatissimum L. |url=http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2353429 |website=The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species}}</ref>
| synonyms = 
{{specieslist
|Linum crepitans|(Boenn.) Dumort.
|Linum humile|Mill.
|Linum indehiscens|(Neilr.) Vavilov & Elladi
    }}
}}

'''Flax''', also known as '''common flax''' or '''linseed''', is a [[flowering plant]], '''''Linum usitatissimum''''', in the family [[Linaceae]]. It is cultivated as a food and [[fiber crop]] in regions of the world with [[temperate climate]]s. In 2022, [[France]] produced 75% of the world's supply of flax.

Textiles made from flax are known in English as [[linen]] and are traditionally used for bed sheets, underclothes, and table linen. Its oil is known as [[linseed oil]]. In addition to referring to the plant, the word "flax" may refer to the unspun fibers of the flax plant. 

The plant species is known only as a cultivated plant<ref name="GRIN">{{GRIN | access-date = 2 October 2014}}</ref> and appears to have been domesticated just once from the wild species ''[[Linum bienne]]'', called pale flax.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Allaby, R. |last2=Peterson, G. |last3=Merriwether, D. |last4=Fu, Y.-B. |year=2005 |title=Evidence of the domestication history of flax (''Linum usitatissimum'' L.) from genetic diversity of the sad2 locus |journal=Theoretical and Applied Genetics |volume=112 |issue=1 |pages=58–65 |doi=10.1007/s00122-005-0103-3 |pmid=16215731 |s2cid=6342499}}</ref> The plants called "flax" in New Zealand are, by contrast, members of the genus ''[[Phormium]]''.
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