It may be safely accounted as one of the easiest, showiest and most beautiful of all hardy annuals. From early summer to autumn, brilliant blood-red flowers with a beautiful satin sheen are produced. Scarlet flax is a wildflower that is indigenous to North Africa and Southern Europe, but has become naturalized in other desert areas. It can be grown successfully in all regions in India. Each solitary scarlet bloom only lasts about a day, but new blooms are produced serially for a continuous presence amidst foliage only a foot or so high. Scarlet flax perfers loose sandy soils; however, it is highly adaptable to other types of soils as well as long as the soil is fast draining. It is drought tolerant and can be grown in full sun or light shade (blooms better in full sun) The cup-shaped, satiny sheened blooms are a brilliant velvety red and the petals are sometimes outlined in black and appear on long stalks. It reseeds itself and is easily started from seed. The seeds glisten because of their high oil content, flax being the source of linseed oil with which linoleum is manufactured, and artists' paints, with scores of industrial uses. L. usitatissum is the species grown commercially for linseed oil, but it can also be obtainted from L. grandiflorum & other flaxes.