Phleum bertoloniiDC.

Smaller Cat's-taildiploid timothy

WFO wfo-0000889984 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Phleum bertolonii, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. a Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-20 / obs. 152096788

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Accession
K000914542
Filed as
Phleum bertolonii DC.
Det. by
Cope, T.A.
Collected
Cope, T.A. 2008-07-04
Origin
GB
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 48 botanical countries

Regions where Phleum bertolonii is native: Algeria, Azores, Morocco, Tunisia, East Aegean Is., Iran, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Krym, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaMoroccoTunisiaEast Aegean Is.IranLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyKrymNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine AzoresFøroyarSardegna
Native distribution of Phleum bertolonii, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
East Aegean Is. EAI ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 236 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -5.8 °C 2.9 °C 4.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.3 °C 20.1 °C 24.2 °C
Annual rainfall 645 mm 817 mm 1,145 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 116 mm 150 mm 219 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 236 research-grade observations of Phleum bertolonii that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 22 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Phleum abbreviatum (Boiss.) Rivas Mart., A.Asensi, Molero Mesa & F.Valle
  • Phleum brachystachyum subsp. abbreviatum (Boiss.) Gamisans, A.T.Romero & C.Morales
  • Phleum castelnavi Sennen
  • Phleum hubbardii D.Kovats
  • Phleum intermedium Jord.
  • Phleum nodosum var. minus DC.
  • Phleum nodosum var. serotinum (Jord.) Martrin-Donos
  • Phleum praecox Jord.
  • Phleum praecox var. delphinense Beauverd
  • Phleum pratense subsp. abbreviatum (Boiss.) J.Molero Mesa & F.Pérez Raya
  • Phleum pratense subsp. bertolonii (DC.) Şerb. & Nyár.
  • Phleum pratense subsp. hubbardii (D.Kovats) Soó
  • Phleum pratense subsp. intermedium (Jord.) Berher
  • Phleum pratense subsp. praecox (Jord.) Berher
  • Phleum pratense subsp. serotinum (Jord.) Berher
  • Phleum pratense var. abbreviatum Boiss.
  • Phleum pratense var. bertolonii (DC.) Woods
  • Phleum pratense var. bertolonii (DC.) Beck
  • Phleum pratense var. debile Velen.
  • Phleum pratense var. maximum Lojac.
  • Phleum pratense var. serotinum (Jord.) St.-Lag.
  • Phleum serotinum Jord.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.