Linaceae

Linaceae is a family of flowering plants that is cosmopolitan in distribution and includes about 250 species in 14 genera, classified into two subfamilies, the Linoideae and the Hugonioideae. Its leaves are always simple, arranged alternately in most species but opposite or whorled in some Linum, Sclerolinon and Hesperolinon species, and its hermaphroditic, radially symmetrical flowers are usually five parted. Under the older Cronquist system the family had its own order, the Linales, while modern classifications place it in the order Malpighiales. The largest genus is Linum, the flaxes, with 180 to 200 species including the cultivated flax Linum usitatissimum; the Linoideae are herbs, subshrubs, shrubs and small trees of temperate and tropical Eurasia, Africa, Australia and the Americas, while the Hugonioideae are woody vines, shrubs and trees that are almost entirely tropical.