Camelina sativa.

Botanical name: 

Camelina sativa Crantz. Cruciferae. False Flax. Gold-Of-Pleasure. Oil-Seed Plant. Siberian Oil-Seed.

Europe and temperate Asia. This plant occurs in northeastern America as a noxious weed in flax fields, having been introduced from Europe. It was regularly cultivated in the mediaeval ages in Germany and Russia and is now cultivated in Flanders. The stem yields a fiber, but the stalks seem to be used only in broom making. The seeds yield an oil which is used for culinary and other purposes. In 1854, the seeds of this plant were distributed from the United States Patent Office. It was called in Britain gold-of-pleasure even in the time of Gerarde. The seeds are sometimes imported into England under the name dodder seed, but they have no relation to the true dodder which is a far different plant.


Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.