Plant-Lore

Collecting the folklore and uses of plants

New Zealand flax

2014-08-30 13.55.391. New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) was introduced by Augustus Smith in the late 1800s to set up a flax industry. This never materialised, and this large plant … has gone wild on the Isles. The bunches of long blackish/brown sticky seed-pods are called by the children witches’ fingers [St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly, November 1992].

Images: cultivated, The Grange, Beddington, London Borough of Sutton; August 2014.