The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

alpine timothy

Habit Plants perennial, 15–50 cm tall, cespitose or short-rhizomatous.
Culms

with lower internodes not enlarged or bulbous.

Leaves

sheaths of uppermost culm leaves inflated;

blades flat; to 17 cm × 4–7 mm.

Inflorescences

ovoid, lanceolate, or oblong, 1.5–3 times as long as wide, 1–6 cm × 5–12 mm.

Glumes

2.5–4.5 mm, 3-veined;

sides scabrous;

keels with spreading hairs;

tips awned; awns 1.5– 2.5(3.2) mm.

Lemmas

1.7–2.5 mm, 5–7-veined, mostly glabrous;

keels with spreading hairs;

tips acute; awnless.

Anthers

1–2 mm.

2n

=14, 28.

Phleum alpinum

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Moist mountain meadows, streamsides, coastal headlands. 50–2800m. BR, BW, Casc, CR, ECas, Est, Sisk. CA, ID, NV, WA; western and northern North America; South America, circumboreal. Native.

Phleum alpinum is a small grass with a dense, spike-like inflorescence and inflated sheaths on the uppermost leaf. Phleum pratense is a taller grass with longer inflorescences and less distinctly inflated sheaths. It usually grows at lower elevations, though there is an overlap in range.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 446
Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting
Sibling taxa
P. arenarium, P. paniculatum, P. pratense, P. subulatum
Web links