MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



367 



awned, the second usually 1-awned, 

 the awns slightly spreading; lemma 

 3-nerved, pubescent on the margins, 

 the awn 2 to 3 mm. long; palea about 

 as long as the lemma, pubescent. % 



— Plains and rocky hills, Colorado 

 and Utah to Texas and Arizona, 

 south to southern Mexico. Adventive 

 in wool waste, Maine. An important 

 southwestern forage grass. 



79. PHLfiUM L. Timothy 



Spikelets 1-flowered, laterally compressed, disarticulating above the 

 glumes; glumes equal, membranaceous, keeled, abruptly mucronate or awned 

 or gradually acute; lemma shorter than the glumes, hyaline, broadly truncate, 

 3- to 5-nerved; palea narrow, nearly as long as the lemma. Annuals or peren- 

 nials, with erect culms, flat blades, and dense, cylindric panicles. Type species, 

 Phleum pratense. Name from Greek phleos, an old name for a marsh reed. 



The common species, P. pratense, or timothy, is our most important hay 

 grass. It is cultivated in the humid regions, the Northeastern States, south to 

 the Cotton Belt, and west to the 100th meridian, and also in the humid region 

 of Puget Sound and in mountain districts. The native species, P. alpinum, 

 alpine timothy, furnishes forage in mountain meadows of the Western States. 



Panicle cylindric, several times longer than wide 1. P. pratense. 



Panicle ovoid or oblong, usually not more than twice as long as wide 2. P. alpinum. 



1. Phleum pratense L. Timothy. 

 (Fig. 516.) Culms 50 to 100 cm. tall, 

 from a swollen or bulblike base, 

 forming large clumps; blades elon- 

 gate, mostly 5 to 8 mm. wide; panicle 

 cylindric, commonly 5 to 10 cm. long, 

 often longer, the spikelets crowded, 

 spreading ; glumes about 3.5 mm. long, 

 truncate with a stout awn 1 mm. long, 

 pectinate-ciliate on the keel. Q[ — 

 Commonly escaped from cultivation 

 along roadsides and in fields and 

 waste places throughout the United 

 States; Eurasia. In some localities 

 known as herd's grass. 



2. Phleum alpinum L. Alpine 

 timothy. (Fig. 517.) Culms 20 to 50 

 cm. tall, from a decumbent, some- 

 what creeping, densely tufted base; 

 blades mostly less than 10 cm. long, 



4 to 6 mm. wide; panicle ellipsoid or 

 short-cylindric, bristly; glumes about 



5 mm. long, hispid-ciliate on the keel, 

 the awns 2 mm. long. % — Com- 

 mon in mountain meadows, in bogs 

 and wet places, Greenland to Alaska, 

 south in the mountains of Maine and 

 New Hampshire ; northern Michigan ; 

 in the mountains of the Western 

 States to New Mexico and California; 

 also on the seacoast at Fort Bragg, 

 Calif., and northward; Mexico; Eur- 



Figure 517. — Phleum alpinum. Panicle, X 1; glumes 

 and floret, X 10. (Clements 337, Colo.) 



asia and Arctic and alpine regions of 

 the Southern Hemisphere. 



Phleum arenarium L. Annual; 

 culms tufted, 5 to 30 cm. tall; foliage 

 scant, mostly basal, the blades 2 to 

 4 cm. long; panicle 1 to 3 cm. long, 

 somewhat tapering at each end; 

 glumes acuminate, strongly ciliate on 



