Alpine Timothy

Foodplant / spot causer
Mastigosporium anamorph of Mastigosporium kitzebergense causes spots on live leaf of Phleum alpinum

This is a species of arctic and alpine regions of the N hemisphere, extending down the Andes in South America as far as Chile.

2000-4300 m.

Perennial with elongated rhizome; culm 30-40 cm tall, 1 mm in diameter. Bldes tutfted near the base of the culm; cauline leaves 2-3, linear-lanceolate, 5-7 cm long by 5 mm wide; ligule membranous, about 1 mm long, truncate. Panicle contracted, cylindrical, 2 cm long 7 mm wide. Spikelets 1-flowered, 3 mm long; glumes subequal, chartaceous, laterally compressed, 3-nerved, 1-keeled, hairy, apex cuspidate. Lemma membranous, 2 mm long, 5-nerved, apex truncate. Palea membranous, oblong, nearly as long as the lemma. Caryopsis cylindrical, 1.5 mm long.

Perennial, shortly rhizomatous. Culms loosely tufted, erect or decumbent at base, 5–40(–60) cm tall, 3–4-noded. Leaf sheaths glabrous, upper slightly inflated; leaf blades broadly linear, 2–13 cm, 2–9 mm wide, the upper shorter than the lower, glabrous, apex acute; ligule 2–3 mm, obtuse. Panicle broadly cylindrical to ovoid, 1–6 × 0.6–1.2 cm, usually purplish; branches adnate to central axis. Spikelets oblong, 3–4 mm (excluding awns); rachilla extension absent; glumes oblong, membranous, scaberulous, lower softly hairy on margins, keel conspicuously pectinate-ciliate, apex truncate, cuspidate into a stiff, 1.5–3 mm, glabrous or ciliate awn; lemma ca. 2 mm, 5-veined, veins puberulent, apex truncate; anthers 1–1.5 mm. Caryopsis ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Oct. 2n = 14, 28.

Loosely tufted, shortly rhizomatous perennial; culms 5-50 cm high, erect or ascending. Leaf-blades up to 17 cm long and 8 mm wide, the upper shorter than the lower, glabrous; upper sheaths slightly inflated; ligule up to 2 mm long, obtuse. Panicle 1-5(-6) cm long, 7-15 mm wide, broadly cylindrical to ovoid, usually purplish. Spikelets 3-55(-8.5) mm long (including awns); glumes truncate, stiffly ciliate on the keel, scabrid on the sides, the lower softly hairy on the margins; awn 1-3(-4) mm long, glabrous or ciliate; lemma two-thirds the length of the glumes, 3-5-nerved, minutely hairy on the nerves; anthers 1-1.5 mm long.

Cosmopolitan.

A cosmopolitan species distributed in Arctic and Antarctic zones and alpine regions.

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); throughout the Arctic regions and on mountains in the northern hemisphere, penetrating southwards to southern Chile along mountains in the New World.

Gansu, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Japan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan; SW Asia, N Europe, North America, South America (Andes)].

2400-4400 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-September.

Wet alpine meadows, damp soil around bushes, riversides; 2500–3900 m.

Phleum commutatum Gaudin.

Phleum alpinum L. Sp. PI. 59. 1753
Phleum Haenkeanum Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1: 245. 1830. (Type from Nootka Sound, Vancouver
Island. Haenke.) Phleum pratense var. alpinum Celak. Prodr. Fl. Bohm. 38. 1867. (Based on P. alpinum L.) Phleum alpinum var. americanum Fourn. Mex. PI. Gram. 90. 1886. (Type from Nootka Sound,
Vancouver Island. Haenke?) Phleum alpinum var. Scribnerianum Pammel, Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 7: 238. 1899. (Type from
Geranium Park, Wyoming, Pammel 6.) Plantinia alpina Bubani, Fl. Pyren. 4: 272. 1901. (Based on Phleum alpinum L)
Culms 20-50 cm. tall, erect from a decumbent somewhat creeping densely tufted base; sheaths glabrous; ligule 2-3 mm. long; blades flat, scabrous, mostly less than 10 cm. long, 4-6 mm. wide; panicles ovoid or oblong, bristly, 1-3 cm. long; glumes about 5 mm. long, hispidciliate on the keel, the awns 2 mm. long; lemma about 2 mm. long.
Type locality: Europe.
Distribution: Common in mountain meadows, in bogs, and wet places, Greenland to Alaska, and southward 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, California, and northward; Eurasia and arctic and alpine regions of the southern hemisphere.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome short and compact, stems close, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems ge niculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems solitary, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf sheath enlarged, inflated or distended, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence spike ovoid, lanceolate, or oblong, not more than t wice as long as wide, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes awned, awn 1-5 mm or longer, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equ al to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Phleum alpinum is a species of grass known by the common names alpine cat's-tail, alpine timothy and mountain timothy.