Phleum bertolonii
Species of grass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Phleum bertolonii (smaller cat's-tail) is a species of perennial grass native to most of Europe, southwestern Asia, and northwestern Africa.[1][2] It is a member of the genus Phleum, which consists of 17 species of annual and perennial grasses.[3]
| Phleum bertolonii | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Subfamily: | Pooideae |
| Genus: | Phleum |
| Species: | P. bertolonii |
| Binomial name | |
| Phleum bertolonii | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Description
Phleum bertolonii grows to 50 cm (20 in) tall, rarely 70 cm (28 in) tall, with leaves 2–6 mm (0.1–0.2 in) broad. The leaves have short, narrow, acute-tipped ligules.[4][5]
The flowerhead is up to 8 cm (3 in) long and 3–7.5 mm (0.1–0.3 in) broad, with densely packed spikelets, the glumes with a 0.2–1.2 mm long awn. It flowers from June until August.[4][5]
It has often been confused with Timothy (Phleum pratense); this is most easily distinguished by its broad, blunt ligules, and is a much larger plant, growing to 150 cm, 2–3 times as tall as P. bertolonii and with flowerheads twice as long.[2][4][5]
Taxonomy
In the past, it was often considered a subspecies of Phleum pratense, as Phleum pratense subsp. bertolonii,[5] but is now generally considered to be a separate species.[1][2][4]
