Linum Linnaeus (1753: 277)

González-Velasco, Juan, Burgos-Hernández, Mireya, Galván-Escobedo, Iris G. & Castillo-Campos, Gonzalo, 2022, Taxonomic update of the flax family in Mexico, Phytotaxa 549 (2), pp. 141-184 : 146

Linum Linnaeus (1753: 277) . Type:— Linum usitatissimum L., N. Amer. Fl. 25: 67. 1907.

Description:— Herbs, sometimes shrubs, annual or perennial; glabrous, puberulent, or pubescent partially or throughout; stems erect or extended, sometimes decumbent, unbranched or branched from the base or from the inflorescence, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves entire, dentate or glandular-dentate; alternate, opposite and/or in whorls; sessile or subsessile, with or without stipular glands. Inflorescence terminal, in cymose panicles or racemes, rarely in corymbs or solitary. Flowers with 5 sepals, imbricate, attached at the base, commonly persistent, rarely deciduous; entire, laciniate, ciliate, dentate, or glandular-dentate, glabrous or pilose; petals 5; yellow, white, pink, yellowishorange, orange, or blue, rarely red or crimson-brown; longer than sepals; stamens 5, provided with 5 small staminodia or absent; styles 5, free, connate at the base or fused up to 1/2 or more of the style length, filiform; stigmata capitate or straight; ovary superior, 5-locular or 10-locular for the presence of false septa. Fruit with septicidal capsule; ovoid, ellipsoid, or triangular-ovoid; dehiscent into 5 or 10 segments; glabrous or pilose; seeds 10, lenticular, flattened, elliptical to broadly elliptical; brown to reddish-brown; testa mucilaginous. The genus comprises 24 native and one introduced species distributed throughout the Mexican territory.