Phleum alpinum

Alpine timothy, mountain timothy, Mountain Timothy

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Alpine timothy is a California native perennial found in northern coastal, Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, northern coastal, San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, Warner Mountains, and eastern Sierra Nevada in wet meadows, streambanks, conifer forest, and alpine habitats at elevations up to 3,700 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces small greenish-white flowers in dense, cylindrical clusters 7 to 12 millimeters wide. Growing in clumped clusters 20 to 60 centimeters tall with loosely tufted stems, it forms dense grass-like mounds with occasional rhizomatous growth. Its leaves are basal and cauline, with blade-like leaves 2 to 12 centimeters long and 3 to 8 millimeters wide. The grass produces small spikelet structures with delicate, scabrous glumes 2 to 5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Wet meadows, streambanks, conifer forest, alpine

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: < 3700 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, n&ampc NCoR, CaRH, SNH, n CCo (Marin Co.), SnBr, SnJt, Wrn, SNE

California counties: Fresno, Sonoma, Alpine, Inyo, Humboldt, Tulare, Tehama, Riverside, Mono, Plumas, Mendocino, Mariposa, Siskiyou, Glenn, San Bernardino, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Trinity, Tuolumne, Modoc, Madera, Amador, Shasta, Del Norte, Lassen, Marin, Sierra, Lake, Butte, San Francisco

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.