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Service Notice

The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

The notice period started at 9:45 am on Friday, 12 December 2025 +08:00 and will end at 12:00 pm on Monday, 2 March 2026 +08:00.

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Linum L.

Reference
Sp.Pl. [Linnaeus] 2:277 (1753)
Name Status
Current
Image

Scientific Description

Family Linaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Herbs. Annual, or perennial. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves alternate; spiral; sessile; non-sheathing; simple. Leaf blades entire; narrow. Leaves with stipules, or without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Stem anatomy. Nodes tri-lacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes, or in corymbs, or in panicles. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences leaf-opposed. Flowers pedicellate; ebracteate; regular; 5 merous; cyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present (outside the androecium); extrastaminal; of separate members, or annular. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 -whorled; polysepalous, or gamosepalous; imbricate (quincuncial); persistent; with the median member posterior. Corolla 5; 1 -whorled; polypetalous, or gamopetalous; imbricate; regular; blue, or white, or yellow. Petals clawed. Androecium 10. Androecial members free of the perianth; markedly unequal; coherent (basally, into a ring); 1 - adelphous. Androecium including staminodes. Staminodes 5 (alternating with the fertile stamens). Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; alternisepalous, or oppositisepalous. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; tetrasporangiate. Gynoecium 5 carpelled. The pistil 5 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious to synstylovarious; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 5 locular, or 10 locular (because of extra projections from the carpel midribs). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 5; partially joined (connate at the base and sometimes for most of their length); apical. Stigmas dry type; papillate; Group II type. Placentation axile. Ovules 2 per locule, or 1 per locule (when division of carpels by septa more or less complete); pendulous; epitropous; non-arillate; anatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy; a schizocarp. Mericarps 10. Seeds 1 per mericarp. Seeds elliptic in outline; endospermic, or non-endospermic; compressed; with amyloid, or without amyloid. Cotyledons 2. Embryo chlorophyllous (11 species); straight. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar.