German-sesame

Camelina sativa, gold-of-pleasure or false flax, is an annual herb in the mustard family (Brassicaceae) cultivated in Europe as an oilseed for at least three thousand years. Branched, slender stems rise 30-120 cm tall and become slightly woody at maturity, bearing alternate, sessile, lance-shaped to arrow-shaped leaves with entire to sparsely toothed margins clasping the stem at the base, the foliage finely pubescent. In early summer the stem tips carry elongating racemes of small four-petalled flowers cross-shaped in the classic cruciferous pattern, with petals pale yellow. The fruit is a distinctive pyriform to obovoid silicle 7-12 mm long ending in a short beak, splitting into two persistent valves to release numerous small, brown to orange-brown oily seeds. Long grown across temperate Europe and west Asia, the species has been re-introduced as a low-input oilseed crop for food, biofuel and industrial uses.