Camelina sativa(L.) Crantz

gold-of-pleasurefalse flax

WFO wfo-0000582189 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Camelina sativa, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. a Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-22 / obs. 161852499
Camelina sativa, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. b Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159575382
Camelina sativa, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. c Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159046513
Camelina sativa, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. d Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 158088299
Camelina sativa, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. e Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157704110
Camelina sativa, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. f Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175695546
Camelina sativa, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. g Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160150459
Camelina sativa, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. h Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174098961

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.

Native range 33 botanical countries

Regions where Camelina sativa is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Lebanon-Syria, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Primorye, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, West Himalaya, Albania, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, South European Russia, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AltayAmurBuryatiyaChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskLebanon-SyriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaWest HimalayaAlbaniaBulgariaCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSouth European RussiaTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Camelina sativa, 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
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Albania ALB EUROPE
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
East European Russia RUE
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
West Himalaya WHM ASIA-TROPICAL

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 98 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -10.9 °C -9.6 °C 1.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.8 °C 23.1 °C 26.1 °C
Annual rainfall 530 mm 672 mm 976 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 91 mm 108 mm 188 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 98 research-grade observations of Camelina sativa 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.

Also published as 26 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.

  • Adyseton dentatum G.Don
  • Alyssum myagrum Wibel
  • Alyssum sativum (L.) Scop.
  • Camelina ambigua Besser ex Steud.
  • Camelina caucasica (Sinskaya) Vassilcz.
  • Camelina crepitans Kusn.
  • Camelina glabrata (DC.) Fritsch
  • Camelina glabrata (DC.) Fritsch ex N.W.Zinger
  • Camelina hirsuta Bernh.
  • Camelina microcarpa subsp. pilosa (DC.) Jáv.
  • Camelina sagittata Moench
  • Camelina sativa subsp. glabrata (DC.) N.W.Zinger
  • Camelina sativa subsp. glabrata N.Zing.
  • Camelina sativa subsp. sativa Crantz
  • Camelina sativa subsp. zingeri (Mirek) Smejkal
  • Camelina sativa var. caucasica Sinskaya
  • Camelina sativa var. crepitans Sinskaya
  • Camelina sativa var. glabrata DC.
  • Camelina sativa var. zingeri Z.Mirek
  • Chamaelinum sativum Host
  • Cochlearia sativa Cav.
  • Crucifera camelina E.H.L.Krause
  • Dorella oleifera Bubani
  • Linostrophum sativum Schrank

and 2 more.

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.