Timothy, Phleum pratense, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Grasses of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Height	Prime Season
	Timothy	Phleum pratense L.	Poaceae (Grasses)	Upland	1 to 3.5 feet	Early Summer
	Native Status	Timothy is a non-native grass introduced into North America from Europe about 1700. It is now naturalized and found throughout the United States and Canada. In Minnesota it is found throughout the state, absent in only a few widely scattered counties.
Notes	Timothy is a short-lived cool-season perennial that grows in clumps from a shallow, fibrous root system. The base of the plant is swollen during the growing season. The stems are erect, gray-green. Leaf blades are about 1/4" wide and taper toward the tip. Blade length is 2 to 10" (5-25cm). Blades are flat, distinctly veined, twisted, erect, light green in color and usually rough on the margins. The leaf sheath is split, distinctly veined, without hair and often purplish at the base. The leaf ligule is dome-like and very prominent. The flowering head is a spike-like panicle with numerous spikelets and forms a dense cylindrical structure (which gave it the old common name of "catstail"). The entire panicle is 2 to 6" long. Seed is very small. Timothy is a good forage plant, very palatable, growing best in rich, moist, bottomland soil and does not do well on coarse soils. The genus Phleum is Greek for a type of reed and pratense means "of meadows". Timothy is named for Timothy Hanson, and 18th Century American farmer who promoted the grass around 1720 for use as hay. Northern European strains are considered superior for forage.


Above: A stand of Timothy. Photo above and at top left ©Phoebe Waugh.	Above: Drawing courtesy drawing: USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. Manual of the grasses of the United States. USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. Washington, DC.
Below: The flowering spike of Timothy. Photo ©G D Bebeau	Below: Botanical Illustration from Kurt Stüber's Online Library courtesy Freckmann Herbarium, University of Wisconsin, Steven's Point.

Below: Timothy florets on the flowering spike. Photo ©G D Bebeau	Below: The dome shaped ligule and the purplish color of the edges of the leaf sheath. Photo ©G D Bebeau

Other Links:----------- -----------Common Name Plant List ---------Scientific Name Plant List----------Home Page

References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 28c, W2, W3, W5 & W6. Distribution principally from W2 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

©2011 Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. All photos are the property of The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden unless otherwise credited. "www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org"

072511