Description: Erect tufted perennials forming large clumps; culms stout, often with a swollen or bulbous base.
Leaves with ligule membranous; blade rolled in bud, flat, firm, scabrous.
Spikelets shortly pedicellate, crowded, laterally compressed, disarticulating above the glumes, florets 1. Glumes oblong, equal, keeled, awned, 3–5-nerved. Lemma shorter than the glume, 3–5-nerved, broad & blunt, scabrous. Palea shorter than the lemma, narrow.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 15 species, Europe, North America, northern temperate regions. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & K. L. McClay
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Phleum pratense |
|
