Linum grandiflorum Desf.
Crimson Flax, Flowering flax, Flowering flax (EN), Großblütiger Lein (DE)
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Linum grandiflorum is a species of flax known by several common names, including flowering flax, red flax, scarlet flax, and crimson flax. It is native to Algeria and Tunisia, but it is known elsewhere in Northern Africa, Southern Europe and in several locations in North America as an introduced species. It is an annual herb producing an erect, branching stem lined with waxy, lance-shaped leaves 1 to 2 centimeters long. The inflorescence bears flowers on pedicels several centimeters long. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Linum grandiflorum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Linum
Linum (flax) is a genus of approximately 200 species in the flowering plant family Linaceae. They are native to temperate and subtropical regions of the world. The genus includes the common flax, the bast fibre of which is used to produce linen and the seeds to produce linseed oil.
Text from Wikipedia, “Linum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Adenolinum grandiflorum (Desf.) W.A.Weber; Linum grandiflorum var. purpureum J.Dix; Linum grandiflorum var. rubrum.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to April in the northern hemisphere (November to April at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (264 mm of 347 mm) falls in November to April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.6 °C against a yearly mean of 18.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to October.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 347 mm a year, wettest November at 55 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
347 mm a year at the habitat, 264 mm of it November to April. Wettest month November at 55 mm, driest July at 2 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 316 mm to 359 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 49 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 5.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 5.0 °C, the absolute minimum 1.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 4.2 °C to 9.2 °C), warmest day 30.6 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 15 / 14–15 | 16 / 15–16 | 18 / 18–18 | 20 / 19–20 | 23 / 22–23 | 27 / 26–29 | 30 / 29–32 | 31 / 30–32 | 28 / 27–28 | 24 / 23–24 | 19 / 18–19 | 16 / 15–16 |
| Night °C | 7 / 4–9 | 7 / 5–10 | 9 / 7–11 | 11 / 9–13 | 14 / 12–16 | 18 / 16–19 | 20 / 19–22 | 21 / 20–22 | 19 / 17–21 | 15 / 13–17 | 11 / 9–13 | 8 / 6–11 |
| Rain mm | 50 / 41–52 | 44 / 41–48 | 38 / 34–41 | 30 / 25–34 | 25 / 21–28 | 6 / 5–9 | 2 | 4 / 3–4 | 17 / 16–19 | 29 / 27–30 | 55 / 45–56 | 47 / 33–47 |
| DLI | 18 / 18–19 | 24 / 24–25 | 33 / 32–33 | 40 / 39–40 | 44 / 44–44 | 48 / 48–48 | 49 / 48–49 | 44 / 44–44 | 36 / 35–36 | 27 / 27–27 | 19 / 19–20 | 16 / 16–17 |
| RH % | 59 / 57–59 | 59 / 58–60 | 60 / 58–60 | 58 / 57–58 | 59 / 56–59 | 58 / 54–59 | 57 / 52–58 | 58 / 53–59 | 60 / 57–61 | 60 / 57–60 | 58 / 57–60 | 59 / 57–59 |
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 4 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1086:3589 (35.675, -0.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 4 distinct grid cells holding the 4 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1086:3589 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_-0.625, lapse-corrected -154 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 96 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Nico Hernandez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Justin, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Robyn Armstrong, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) trufniets, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Linum grandiflorum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Nerium oleander Ceylone Rose
Glebionis coronaria Crowndaisy
Ceratonia siliqua Carob
Colchicum europaeum Colchicaceae
Cleomella arborea Bladder Pod
Crassula connata erect pygmyweedOther Linum 3 in the reference
History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 88 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








