Photo: Kahuroa
You couldn’t get a better plant – who doesn’t like an easy-care, robust, tolerant plant like this? Plus it can make a fabulous design aspect to any garden and thanks to careful breeding it comes in a range of fantastic colours.
Flax, one of the oldest known natives aged at over 20 million years, once smothered the countryside but a thriving flax industry, disease and loss of habitat means it now covers just a small fraction of New Zealand compared to its hey-day.
Maori used it for everything from rope to clothing and as an important medicine, especially in wound care where it was used in poultices, a disinfectant, for toothache and even for binding broken limbs.
In the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s flax was New Zealand’s biggest export crop, used for rope and textiles. However the depression of the 1930s and the invention of synthetic fibres saw it decline to nothing by the 1970s.
P. tenax tends to grow and grow (up to 3m high), crowding out everything in its path as it spreads outwards – useful on the farm or in a large garden (especially if you love tui) but not quite so useful when you realize it has taken over and you will need a 6-ton digger to remove it! However, if you want to weave flax, P. tenax is the flax traditionally used.
It’s flower spikes always sit straight up and birds enjoy fighting over the nectar spoils from late spring and into summer.
In the garden, P. cookianum varities will probably be the better option, being a smaller plant (up to 1m high) with much bright flower spikes (that always hang) and brilliant colours in its foliage.
Not usually used in weaving, it is a softer fibre, making it easier for children to learn weaving techniques.
If you’re considering planting flax on the sides of streams or in areas prone to floods, plant close and mix it up – don’t plant in rows. Flax roots will entwine, holding together banks with their strength and numbers.
If you have pukeko in your area, they can be death to young flaxlings; the experts recommend planting deeply, up to 25% of the way up the fan, to make it harder for the
birds to pull it out of the ground.
There are many beautiful flax to pick from if you are choosing for colour. If you want specific traits for your farm plantings, consider:
- P. tenax “Santoft” – excellent shelter that grows very tall, very fast.
- P. cookianum “Manawatu” – incredibly hardy, suitable for very dry soils, especially in gorges.
Believe it or not, but floods are the best thing that can happen to a flax. Bottom heavy, they stick to the soil like glue (especially when closely planted) and actually thrive on going underwater as it helps to keep the plant thrifty, taking away mulch that builds up around the bottom of the plant that can encourage pests and washing away insect pests.
If your flax is in the garden, you will need to clear away that mulch by hand, otherwise it encourages caterpillars, fungal diseases and makes a great home for slugs, snails and other pests.
Want more flax? Just use your spade to chop off a fan and plant it. It doesn’t seem to matter how much punishment you give a flax – you need the bare amount of roots and given good soil conditions, it will still come away.
Herbicide-tolerant flax
Flax is tolerant to the Triclopyr range of chemicals (Grazon, Scrubcutter, Brush Off, Renovate, Victory etc) commonly used for brushweeds (eg. blackberry, gorse), making these a good option for post-planting control. It’s believed it is susceptible to the Metsulfuron-methyl range of weed killing chemicals (eg. Escort, Answer, Matrix, Meturon, Mustang etc).
Does feeding flax to stock reduce worm burdens?
You might have heard the stories, of flax being used as an effective anthelmintic for stock and old farmers swearing by its “powers”.
But research by Dr Annette Litherland of AgResearch found feeding flax to calves, even in large quantities, had no effect on worm populations that she could detect. In fact, there was a detrimental effect, as the high fibre content of flax made the calves scour.
It is possible that flax could reduce the establishment of larvae but this wasn’t tested.
It should be noted that very few plants possess anthelmintic properties: reported activity can more often be ascribed to browsing above contaminated pasture (and this may be a factor also with flax).
