Camelina Sativa

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WHAT IS CAMELINA SATIVA?

Camelina is an oleaginous plant known since the Bronze Age.
It belongs to Brassicaceae (or Cruciferous) family with more than 300 genus of plants like Rape, Canola and Mustard and almost 4000 species distributed all over the world.

It’s called in many different ways: False flax, Gold of Pleasure, Wild Flax, Linseed Dodder, German Sesame, and Siberian Oilseed.

A BIT OF HISTORY…

Camelina was cultivated in Europe and in the north-east of Asia until the 50’s of last century. Its oil was commonly used throughout Europe, mainly in Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and Russia. Its cultivation was abandoned in favor of other oil crops such as rape and sunflower, more suitable to be used in the modern food industry. Camelina cultivation has been recently rediscovered in different areas.

In the last decade this species is considered a valuable resource to develop thanks to the research of new vegetal and sustainable sources of Omega polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Camelina is mainly cultivated in Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan and Canada.

We select only safe, unpolluted and fertile fields, chosen after accurate lab analysis to check their properties.

Camelina growing cycles

Camelina has two growing cycles a year, it can be cultivated as a fall-winter crop or can be sowed in the spring and harvested in the summer.

A precious plant: characteristics and low environmental impact

Camelina cultivation is an eco-friendly practice for many reasons:

It well adapts to cool temperatures and semi-arid climates, it grows well in sandy soils, could be cultivated also in hilly fields
It can reach an height of 100 cm
It is sowed shallow at 1cm depth
It can be cultivated in marginal areas and doesn’t compete with other crops
It’s a low input crop
It doesn’t require irrigation
It’s robust and resists to pests and diseases and doesn’t require pesticides
In a high density cultivation, it can outcompete weeds and doesn’t require herbicides