Identifying features of linum aristatum include the fused rather than separate styles, the glandular teeth along the sepal edges, and the sepal tips, which taper smoothy to a brown bristle. The five sepals are narrowly lanceolate in shape, greenish or reddish, with lighter margins, and about a third of an inch long. Petals are slightly longer, yellow to orange-yellow, obovate, sometimes flushed with red at the base. Upper petal margins are slightly uneven. Stamens are yellow, the styles yellow and the spherical stigmas greenish-yellow.
The very narrow, grass-like leaves are linear, opposite at spreading at the top of the stem, otherwise alternate and ascending, or appressed. Stems are much branched, rigid, and hairless.
Common name:
Yellow bristle flax
Family:
Scientific name:
Linum aristatum
Main flower color:
Range:
From southern Utah to west Texas
Height:
Up to 17 inches
Habitat:
Saguebrush, pinyon-juniper woodland, open, sandy places, from 4,000 to 10,000 feet
Leaves:
Linear, narrow, at most 0.8 inches long and less than 0.1 inches wide, glabrous, with entire edges
Season:
May to September
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