Phleum paniculatumHuds.

British timothy

WFO wfo-0000890075 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Phleum paniculatum, photographed by bat (Maria Vorontsova)
fig. a bat (Maria Vorontsova), CC0 1.0 / 2015-04-10 / obs. 103894996

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
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 3600718
Filed as
Phleum paniculatum Huds.
Det. by
Soreng, Robert J., Research Associate (BOT), Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History (UNITED STATES)
Collected
R. J. Soreng, D. Johnson, P. Johnson, N. Dzyubenko, E. Dzyubenko & D. Schilnikov 2010-07-24
Origin
RU
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

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 33 botanical countries

Regions where Phleum paniculatum is native: Afghanistan, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe AfghanistanChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastIranJapanKazakhstanKirgizstanNorth CaucasusTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanXinjiangPakistanWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCorseFranceGermanyHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSiciliaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-Europe Sardegna
Native distribution of Phleum paniculatum, 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
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Iran IRN
Japan JAP
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
North Caucasus NCS
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Xinjiang CHX
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM

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 83 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -10.9 °C -3.4 °C -0.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.8 °C 25.5 °C 31.3 °C
Annual rainfall 357 mm 695 mm 961 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 52 mm 118 mm 173 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 83 research-grade observations of Phleum paniculatum 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 25 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.

  • Chilochloa annua (M.Bieb.) Roem. & Schult.
  • Chilochloa aspera P.Beauv.
  • Chilochloa paniculata (Huds.) P.Beauv.
  • Phalaris aspera Retz.
  • Phalaris paniculata (Huds.) Aiton
  • Phalaris tenuifolia Steud.
  • Phleum annuum M.Bieb.
  • Phleum asperum Jacq.
  • Phleum asperum var. annuum (M.Bieb.) Griseb.
  • Phleum asperum var. asperum
  • Phleum asperum var. ciliatum Boiss.
  • Phleum asperum var. japonicum (Franch. & Sav.) Hack.
  • Phleum japonicum Franch. & Sav.
  • Phleum lima C.C.Gmel.
  • Phleum odoratum Roem. & Schult.
  • Phleum paniculatum subsp. annuum (M.Bieb.) Holub
  • Phleum paniculatum subsp. ciliatum (Boiss.) Dogan
  • Phleum paniculatum var. annuum (M.Bieb.) Honda
  • Phleum paniculatum var. annuum (M.Bieb.) G.Westb.
  • Phleum paniculatum var. biebersteinii Grossh.
  • Phleum paniculatum var. ciliatum (Boiss.) Bor
  • Phleum paniculatum var. ciliatum (Boiss.) Kitam.
  • Phleum sibiricum C.C.Gmel.
  • Phleum viride All.

and 1 more.

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.