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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-969
New Zealand Flax
Phormium tenax
New Zealand Flax is a large, fast-growing evergreen perennial native to swampy and intermittently flooded lowland ground across New Zealand, grown for the very high quality, pliable fibre stripped from its long sword-shaped leaves and used for rope, twine, cloth and paper. Roasted seeds serve as a coffee substitute, the flowers yield nectar, and the gum found at the leaf bases is edible. It tolerates occasional saline flooding and maritime exposure, which suits it to wet, exposed or coastal ground other fibre plants cannot use.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6.1–7.8
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 1–6 ft
- Mature spread
- 12–36 in
- Plant spacing
- 1–6 ft
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- None
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Solanum aethiopicum
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Agrimony
Agrimonia eupatoria
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Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
Alfalfa is a deep-rooted perennial legume grown worldwide as one of the richest forage crops available, its taproot running six metres or…
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Aloe Vera
Aloe vera
Aloe Vera is a stemless, clump-forming succulent with thick, spiny-edged leaves that store a clear gel used to soothe burns, wounds and skin…
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Amaranth Greens
Amaranthus tricolor
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Anise
Pimpinella anisum
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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