Common names:

• bitter flax  (Source: Aust Pl Common Names) - English
• cathartic flax  (Source: Aust Pl Common Names) - English
• fairy flax  (Source: F BritStace) - English
• mountain flax  (Source: CRC MedHerbs ed2) - English
• purging flax  (Source: Aust Pl Common Names) - English
• white flax  (Source: Zander ed16) - English
• Purgier-Lein  (Source: Zander ed16) - German
• vildlin  (Source: Kulturvaxtdatabas) - Swedish

Economic Importance:

• Medicines: folklore ()
• Vertebrate poisons: mammals ()

Distributional Range:

Native

Africa

• NORTHERN AFRICA: Morocco

Asia-Temperate

• WESTERN ASIA: Iran (n.), Turkey
• CAUCASUS: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russian Federation, [Dagestan] Russian Federation-Ciscaucasia [Ciscaucasia]

Europe

• NORTHERN EUROPE: Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom
• MIDDLE EUROPE: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland
• EASTERN EUROPE: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russian Federation-European part, [European part] Ukraine (incl. Krym)
• SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE: Albania, Bulgaria, Former Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, Romania
• SOUTHWESTERN EUROPE: France (incl. Corsica), Portugal, Spain


Naturalized (natzd. elsewhere in temperate regions)

References:

1. Afonin, A. N., S. L. Greene, N. I. Dzyubenko, & A. N. Frolov, eds. Interactive agricultural ecological atlas of Russia and neighboring countries. Economic plants and their diseases, pests and weeds (on-line resource). (AgroAtlas)
2. Aldén, B., S. Ryman, & M. Hjertson Svensk Kulturväxtdatabas, SKUD (Swedish Cultivated and Utility Plants Database; online resource on www.skud.info). 2012 (Kulturvaxtdatabas)
3. Cooper, M. R. & A. W. Johnson Poisonous plants and fungi in Britain: animal and human poisoning. 1998 (Cooper & Johnson ed2)
4. Davis, P. H., ed. Flora of Turkey and the east Aegean islands. (F Turk)
5. Duke, J. A. et al. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs. 2002 (CRC MedHerbs ed2)
6. Erhardt, W. et al. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 16. Auflage. 2000 (Zander ed16)
7. Gleason, H. A. & A. Cronquist Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, ed. 2. 1991 (Glea Cron ed2)
8. Greuter, W. et al., eds. Med-Checklist. (L Medit)
9. Groth, D. 2005. pers. comm. (pers. comm.)
10. Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS) Australian plant common name database (on-line resource). (Aust Pl Common Names)
11. Komarov, V. L. et al., eds. Flora SSSR. (F USSR)
12. Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource). (Pl Names)
13. Rechinger, K. H., ed. Flora iranica. (F Iran)
14. Rogers, C. M. 1963. Yellow flowered species of Linum in eastern North America (Brittonia) 15:108.
15. Rogers, C. M. 1984. Linaceae (F NAmer) ser. 2, 12:10.
16. Stace, C. New flora of the British Isles. (F BritStace)
17. Tutin, T. G. et al., eds. Flora europaea. (F Eur)
18. Voss, E. Michigan flora. (F Mich)

Images:

• Seed: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image