Nature on our Doorstep: Pale Flax, a success story

ONE of Ireland’s ‘near-threatened’ flowering plants is in bloom at the moment.

The delicate Pale Flax is described as being Near Threatened in Ireland’s Red Data List for Vascular Plants.

This national list assesses over 1,000 different Irish plant species to see how threatened they are in Ireland today.

Being ‘near threatened’ means that populations of Pale Flax across the country are small and not very widespread.

If threats such as loss of habitat and changing land use patterns continue to affect these populations, Pale Flax is likely to become vulnerable to extinction in the near future.

In South Dublin County, however, the situation is a little more positive for Pale Flax.

This plant grows in dry grasslands on light sandy soils that contain lime.

The flowers of the linen-producing Flax plant are larger and darker blue in colour

It is therefore more commonly found along Ireland’s coastlines. It can also occur inland, however, on old esker soils like those found in certain places around the County.

The Council’s grass maintenance programme is encouraging more flower-rich meadows in public parks.

Where seeds of Pale Flax occur in these soils, they are now getting a chance to successfully flower, set seed and spread, along with a wide range of other meadow flowers.

By nurturing stronger, healthier populations of this lovely plant in public spaces like Tymon and Ballymount Parks, Pale Flax’s chances of surviving into the future have increased, at least in this county.

Pale Flax is related to the larger Flax plant that has been used to make linen for thousands of years.

The bigger, darker blue flowers of this Flax plant also produce linseeds which are collected and crushed to make linseed oil.

In past centuries, this larger Flax species was grown in South Dublin County to provide plant fibre to the linen mills in Palmerstown while, in the Clondalkin oil mills, Flax seeds were once processed to make linseed oil.

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