Timothy
Prepared by Jennifer L. D’Appollonio, Assistant Scientist, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. Updated April 2019.
Scientific name: Phleum pratense L.
Common name(s): timothy, timothy-grass, common timothy
Link(s): USDA PLANTS Profile, Go Botany
Images: (to see enlargements [PC]: click on image, then right click and choose “view image”)
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- disturbed edge of blueberry field
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- early flower, early June
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- early flower
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- full flower, early July
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- inflorescence detail
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- leaf detail
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- Ligule
Description:
– perennial
-grows in stools or clumps
-shallow, compact, and fibrous root system
-grows in erect culms 20 to 40 inches tall
-Leaves vary in length
- few inches to a foot long
- 1/4 inch wide
- narrowing gently toward the tip.
-heads are
- 2 to 6 inches in length
- spike-like
-distinctive trait
- 1 or occasionally 2 of the basal internodes of the stem swell into a bulb-like growth
Habitat:
-cool humid climate
Agriculture:
-nutritious and palatable
-companion grass for alfalfa, trefoil, or clover
-found in wildlife mixtures for nesting, brood cover, and escape.
Management:
-highly responsive to fertilizers- especially nitrogen
-stands become weak under close and continuous grazing
-Make successive harvests for hay and silage when basal sprouts appear at the soil surface
Sources:
Bush, Tony. “TIMOTHY Phleum Pratense L.” Plant Fact Sheet , USDA NRCS Rose Lake Plant Materials Center, East Lansing, Michigan, Feb. 2002, plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_phpr3.pdf
Acknowledgement(s):
Eric T. Doucette, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor of Biology, MA College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, MA (updated Feb 2018)