''Phleum alpinum'' is a species of

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

known by the common names alpine cat's-tail, alpine timothy and mountain timothy.

Distribution

''Phleum alpinum'' has a circumboreal distribution, inhabiting northern areas of the Northern Hemisphere, as well as extending down through the Americas to southern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. It can be found on islands in the

subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands ...

region such as

South Georgia Island South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east� ...

, on which it is one of the most common plant species. Callaghan, T. V. and M. C. Lewis. (1971). The growth of ''Phleum alpinum'' L. in contrasting habitats at a sub-Antarctic station. ''New Phytologist'' 70:6 1143-54.

Description

''Phleum alpinum'' is a perennial

bunchgrass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perenni ...

forming loose clumps 20 to 60 centimeters tall. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

is a cylindrical to oval mass of spikelets up to 6 centimeters long and 1.2 wide.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Phleum alpinum''USDA Plants ProfileGrass Manual Treatment''Phleum alpinum'' - Photo gallery
Pooideae Bunchgrasses of North America Bunchgrasses of South America Native grasses of California Grasses of the United States Grasses of Canada Flora of Mexico Flora of the California desert regions Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Pooideae-stub