Loosely or densely tufted perennial; culms 6-150 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, the lower nodes sometimes swollen and tuberous. Leaf-blades up to 45 cm long, 3-10 mm wide, scabrid on both sides or only in the upper part and on the margins; upper sheaths slightly inflated; ligule 1-6 mm long, obtuse. Panicle (1-)2-11(-30) cm long, 4-12 mm wide, cylindrical, green often tinged with purple. Spikelets 2-5.5 mm long (including awns); glumes truncate, stiffly ciliate on the keel, the lower softly hairy on the margins; awn 0.2-2 mm long; lemma two-thirds to three-quarters the length of the glumes, 5-7-nerved, minutely hairy; anthers c. 2 mm long.

Type locality: Europe.

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P., introduced); native in temperate Europe, but now introduced into most countries.

Timothy has been collected on only one occasion in Pakistan.