Short answers, pulled from the story.
Carl Linnaeus coined the scientific name Linum usitatissimum in his 1753 book Species Plantarum. This flowering plant belongs to the family Linaceae and appears only as a cultivated species today.
The earliest evidence of humans using wild flax as a textile dates back thirty thousand years to Dzudzuana Cave in present-day Georgia. Spun, dyed, and knotted fibers found there belong to the Upper Paleolithic period.
World production of raw or retted flax reached 875995 tonnes in 2022 according to FAOSTAT data from the United Nations. France produced seventy-five percent of that total supply alone with Normandy contributing nearly one-third of global output.
A 100-gram portion of ground flax seed supplies approximately five hundred thirty-four kilocalories of food energy. This serving contains forty-one grams of fat, twenty-eight grams of fiber, and twenty grams of protein.
Canadian flax exports faced contamination issues in September 2009 involving a deregistered genetically modified cultivar named Triffid. This variety held food and feed safety approval within Canada and the United States but triggered marketability concerns across Europe where zero tolerance policies exist regarding unapproved organisms.