Meadow Flax
Linum pratense
Meadow flax is a Southern Plains annual with sky-blue, satiny flowers that open fresh each morning in spring, an easy, drought-tolerant reseeder that drifts beautifully through sunny, sandy meadows. Like cultivated flax, the oil-rich seed is edible once cooked — raw flaxseed contains cyanide-forming compounds destroyed by cooking.
- Family
- Linaceae
- Type
- wildflower
- Lifespan
- annual
- Height
- 2–3 ft
- Spacing
- 1.5–2 ft apart
- Light
- sun
- Soil moisture
- dry
- Soil pH
- acidic, alkaline, neutral
- Bloom
- April, May, June
- Bloom colors
- white, blue
- Wildlife value
- pollinators, songbirds
- Landscape uses
- border
- Native states
- AZ, CO, KS, NM, OK, TX
Related native plants
More Linum species
- Blue Flax (Linum lewisii)
- Stiffstem Flax (Linum rigidum)
- Berlandier's Yellow Flax (Linum berlandieri)
- King's Flax (Linum kingii)
- Texas Flax (Linum hudsonioides)
- New Mexico Yellow Flax (Linum neomexicanum)