Linseed oil Linseed oil Linseed oil, also known as flaxseed oil or flax oil, is a colourless to yellowish oil obtained from the dried, ripened seeds of the flax plant ("Linum usitatissimum"). The oil is obtained by pressing, sometimes followed by solvent extraction. Linseed oil is a drying oil, meaning it can polymerize into a solid form. Owing to its polymer-forming properties, linseed oil can be used on its own or blended with combinations of other oils, resins or solvents as an impregnator, drying oil finish or varnish in wood finishing, as a pigment binder in oil paints, as a plasticizer and
Vavilovian mimicry that lives with flax". Weeding of the adult plant is impractical; instead they are separated based on properties of the seed. This is done by a winnowing machine, which in this case acts as an inanimate signal receiver. Seeds that are thrown the same distance as flax seeds have thus been selected for, making it near impossible to separate the seeds of these two species. Another example is rye ("Secale cereale"), a grass which is derived from wild rye ("Secale montanum"), a widely distributed Mediterranean species. Rye was originally just a weed growing with wheat and barley, but came under