Phleum pratense L.
Timothy

Habit: 		Short-lived perennial, from a bulblike base, forming large clumps.
Culms: 		Erect, glabrous and smooth, 5-100 cm. tall.
Blades: 	Flat, 7-20 cm. long, 4-8 mm. wide, usually somewhat scabrous.
Sheaths: 	Often exceeding the internodes, the upper longer and close.
Ligule: 	Membranous, 2-3 mm. long.
Inflorescence: 	A dense cylindric spikelike panicle, 5-10 cm. long or more, 5-8 mm. thick.
Spikelets: 	1-flowered, flower perfect, flattened, excluding the awns 2.5-3 mm. long,
		disarticulating above the glumes.
Glumes: 	Equal, about 3.5-mm. long, membranous, ciliate on the keels, truncate
		with a stout awn 1 mm. long.
Lemmas: 	About half as long as the glumes, membranous, hyaline, truncate, 3-5-nerved.
Palea: 		Narrow, nearly as long as the lemma.
Habitat: 	Meadows; native, but also often escaped from cultivation, along roadsides
		and in fields. June-August.
Kansas Range:	Throughout.
Synonyms:	Phleum nodosum L.
		Phleum pratense L. var. nodosum (L.) Huds.
		Phleum pratense L. ssp. nodosum (L.) Arcang.