Alpine timothy (Phleum alpinum)
To appreciate the beauty of alpine timothy you need to get close to the ground, but it will be worth it. It is a 10 -30 cm tall grass and generally has attractive short, plump, dark violet-brown inflorescences and violet tinted leaves in sparse tufts.
Swedish: fjälltimotej – Norwegian: Fjelltimotei – Finnish: Pohjantähkiö – Danish: Fjeld-Rottehale – Icelandic: Fjallaskollapuntur
Text by Anna Palmé, photos by Magnus Göransson.
It has a bipolar geographic distribution and is found in arctic and mountain areas both in the southern and northern hemisphere. In the Nordic region it has a wide distribution in Iceland, Norway as well as northern Sweden and Finland, where it can be found in habitats such as mountain meadows, birch forests, riverbanks, and roadsides. It is most common at higher elevations. Look for this unassuming plant next time you hike in the Nordic mountains!
Close relative
Alpine timothy is a close relative to timothy, Phleum pratense, which is a widely cultivated forage grass in the Nordic region. The latter is larger than alpine timothy, has a longer inflorescence and is not so well adapted to mountain environments. It has been suggested that Phleum alpinum is one of the parent species of Phleum pratense and genetic studies confirm that they are very closely related. To my knowledge, alpine timothy has not been used in plant breeding to produce new improved varieties of timothy, but the close relationship between the two species suggests that there is a clear potential for this.
Other Phleum species
In the Nordic flora you can also find two other Phleum species: Sand cat’s tail Phleum arenarium, and Purple-stem Cat’s-tail, Phleum phleoides. They both have smaller and more southern geographic distributions than alpine timothy. Sand cat’s tail can be found on sandy soils along the coasts of Denmark, southern Sweden, and Norway. Purple-stem Cat’s-tail’s preferred habitats include slopes and heaths with dry calcareous soil in Denmark, Finland, Norway Sweden.
References
Den virtuella floran. Arne and Anna-Lena Anderberg. http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/welcome.html
Den nya nordiska floran. Bo Mossberg and Lennart Stenberg. 2003 Wahlström & Widstrand.
Cai Q and Bullen MR (1994). Analysis of genome-specific sequences in Phleum species: identification and use for study of genomic relationships. Theor. Appl. Genet. 88:831-837.
Arild Larsen and Petter Marum (2006) “Breeding goals and possibilities in future timothy breeding” page 31 in Timothy productivity and forage quality – possibilities and limitations – NJF Seminar 384 10 – 12 August 2006 Akureyri, Iceland
