Timothy

This is a native of Europe and Russia, now widely introduced in temperate regions of the world as a pasture grass (Timothy Grass).

Timothy has been collected on only one occasion in Pakistan.

Perennial forming loose or dense tussocks. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, 40–120 cm tall, 5–6-noded, lowest nodes usually swollen and cormlike. Leaf sheaths glabrous, loose; leaf blades 10–50 cm, 3–8 mm wide, glabrous, both surfaces and margins scabrid, apex acuminate; ligule 2–5 mm, rounded. Panicle narrowly cylindrical, 4–15 × 0.5–1 cm, gray-green; branches adnate to central axis. Spikelets obovate-oblong, 3–3.5 mm; rachilla extension absent; glumes oblong, membranous, scaberulous, lower softly hairy on margins, keel conspicuously pectinate-ciliate, apex truncate with stout, 0.5–1.5 mm, scabrid awn; lemma ca. 2 mm, 7-veined, puberulent, especially along veins, apex obtuse; anthers 1.5–2 mm. Caryopsis ca. 1 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug. 2n = 28, 42.

Loosely or densely tufted perennial; culms 6-150 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, the lower nodes sometimes swollen and tuberous. Leaf-blades up to 45 cm long, 3-10 mm wide, scabrid on both sides or only in the upper part and on the margins; upper sheaths slightly inflated; ligule 1-6 mm long, obtuse. Panicle (1-)2-11(-30) cm long, 4-12 mm wide, cylindrical, green often tinged with purple. Spikelets 2-5.5 mm long (including awns); glumes truncate, stiffly ciliate on the keel, the lower softly hairy on the margins; awn 0.2-2 mm long; lemma two-thirds to three-quarters the length of the glumes, 5-7-nerved, minutely hairy; anthers c. 2 mm long.

Anhui, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Xinjiang (Zhaosu), Yunnan [Russia; Europe].

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P., introduced); native in temperate Europe, but now introduced into most countries.

Grasslands, steppe, forest margins; ca. 1800 m.