Flax

Published February 2008. Reviewed May 2014. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalogFlax (Linum usitatissimum L.) is an ancient crop grown for seed and oil and for the strong fiber produced in its stems. The plant was domesticated approximately 7,000 years ago. The ancient Egyptians produced fabrics from flax including linen, which they used to wrap their dead for embalming.\ud Flax was introduced to North America by the earliest European settlers and has been produced in the U.S. and Canada since then. It was grown as early as 1617 in Quebec and moved across the continent with settlers in the 1800s. Flax was always one of the first crops settlers planted as they broke prairie sod throughout the upper Midwest, Great Plains, and Canadian Prairies