Habitat:
Blooms:
Height:
Feature:
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Sea-shore meadows, dry pastures, rocky outcrops.
July - August.
5 - 25 cms.
Flax is grown for its oil, as a nutritional supplement, and as an
ingredient in many wood-finishing products. Flax is also
grown as an ornamental plant in gardens. Flax fibres are used
to make linen. Flax fibres are taken from the stem of the plant, and
are two to three times as strong as those of cotton.
Europe and North America depended on flax for vegetable-based cloth
until the 19th century, when cotton overtook flax as the most common
plant used for making rag-based paper. Flax is grown on the Canadian
prairies for
linseed oil, which is used as a drying oil in paints and varnishes and
in products such as linoleum and printing inks. In India,
flax seed oil is also known as alsi in Hindi and javas in Marathi. It is mainly used in Savji curries such as mutton curries.
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