The Collaborative International Dictionary
Flax-plant \Flax"-plant`\, n. (Bot.) A plant in new Zealand ( Phormium tenax), allied to the lilies and aloes. The leaves are two inches wide and several feet long, and furnish a fiber which is used for making ropes, mats, and coarse cloth.
Phormium \Phor"mi*um\, n. [NL. fr. Gr. ? a plaited mat, a kind of plant.] (Bot.) A genus of liliaceous plants, consisting of one species ( Phormium tenax). See Flax-plant.
New Zealand \New` Zea"land\ A group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. New Zealand flax.
(Bot.) A tall, liliaceous herb ( Phormium tenax), having very long, sword-shaped, distichous leaves which furnish a fine, strong fiber very valuable for cordage and the like.
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The fiber itself.
New Zealand tea (Bot.), a myrtaceous shrub ( Leptospermum scoparium) of New Zealand and Australia, the leaves of which are used as a substitute for tea.
Wikipedia
Phormium tenax (called flax in New Zealand English; harakeke in Māori; New Zealand flax outside New Zealand; and New Zealand hemp in historical nautical contexts) is an evergreen perennial plant native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island that is an important fibre plant and a popular ornamental plant. The plant grows as a clump of long, straplike leaves, up to two metres long, from which arises a much taller flowering shoot, with dramatic yellow or red flowers.
The fibre has been widely used since the arrival of Māori to New Zealand, originally in Māori traditional textiles and also in rope and sail making after the arrival of Europeans until at least WWII. It is an invasive species in some of the Pacific islands and in Australia.
The blades of the plant contain cucurbitacins, which are poisonous to some animals, and some of them are among the bitterest tastes to humans.
Usage examples of "phormium tenax".
The fibre called New Zealand flax, which is procured from the long sword-shaped leaves of Phormium tenax, a liliaceous plant, has been much recommended of late.