Camelina microcarpaAndrz. ex DC.

littlepod false flax

WFO wfo-0000582173 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Camelina microcarpa, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. a Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-05 / obs. 203605986

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
119804
Filed as
Camelina microcarpa Andrz. ex DC.
Det. by
R. C. Rollins 1985-12-01
Collected
M. J. Williams 1983-07-19
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 51 botanical countries

Regions where Camelina microcarpa is native: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Irkutsk, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Lebanon-Syria, Manchuria, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Tuva, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AlgeriaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaAltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIranIrkutskKazakhstanKirgizstanKrasnoyarskLebanon-SyriaManchuriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanTuvaUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaAlbaniaAustriaBelarusBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine
Native distribution of Camelina microcarpa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Belarus BLR
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Tuva TVA
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 70 in flower of 115 examined

Proportion of examined Camelina microcarpa in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 0 0 too few examined
Feb 0 0 too few examined
Mar 0 0 too few examined
Apr 14 19 74% 51% to 88%
May 33 40 83% 68% to 91%
Jun 16 28 57% 39% to 73%
Jul 6 14 43% 21% to 67%
Aug 1 12 8% 1% to 35%
Sep 0 2 too few examined
Oct 0 0 too few examined
Nov 0 0 too few examined
Dec 0 0 too few examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Camelina microcarpa observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 70 of 115 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,273 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -25.7 °C -8.9 °C -3.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.3 °C 25.0 °C 29.8 °C
Annual rainfall 347 mm 554 mm 808 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 29 mm 94 mm 146 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,273 research-grade observations of Camelina microcarpa that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 22 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Camelina armeniaca Desv.
  • Camelina bornmuelleriana Hub.-Mor. & Reese
  • Camelina campestris K.F.Schimp. & Spenn.
  • Camelina confusa Rouy & Foucaud
  • Camelina longestyla Bordz.
  • Camelina microcarpa f. longistipata C.H.An
  • Camelina microcarpa f. longistipitatus C.H.An
  • Camelina microcarpa subsp. pilosa (DC.) Soó
  • Camelina microcarpa subsp. sylvestris (Wallr.) Hiitonen
  • Camelina microphylla C.H.An
  • Camelina paphlagonica Bornm.
  • Camelina pilosa (DC.) N.W.Zinger
  • Camelina sativa Boiss.
  • Camelina sativa subsp. microcarpa (DC.) Hegi & Em.Schmid
  • Camelina sativa subsp. pilosa (DC.) N.W.Zinger
  • Camelina sativa var. pilosa DC.
  • Camelina sylvestris Wallr.
  • Camelina sylvestris subsp. microcarpa (Andrz. ex DC.) N.W.Zinger
  • Camelina transbaicalensis (Vassilcz.) Vassilcz.
  • Cochlearia polysperma Costa ex Willk.
  • Kernera polysperma Willk. & Costa
  • Myagrum armeniacum (Desv.) Steud.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.