Uncommon New Zealand Wheatgrass Transferred To Australopyrum As a New Endemic Section.
The uncommon montane to subalpine wheat grass Elymus enysii (Kirk) Á.Löve et Connor has always been a bit of an anomaly within the genus. In the latest issue of the New Zealand Journal of Botany (Vol. 43(2): 493-507), New Zealand grass expert and co-author of the Grass Flora (Vol. V, of the New Zealand series), Dr Henry Connor has transferred Elymus enysii, to Australopyrum (Tzvelev) Á.Löve, as A. enysii (Kirk) Connor, making it the second New Zealand endemic species of that genus, and the fourth worldwide. Australopyrum enysii, is unusual for the genus in that it is tetraploid (2n = 28 cf. 2n = 14 usual in the genus), it also differs by having sessile spikelets (except near the base of the inflorescence), the lemma is rather slender and bifid, the callus is short and blunt, and rachilla has a flared apex. Collectively these features could merit placement in its own genus, but the author sagely observes that “little is achieved by the erection of another monotypic genus in Triticeae; the tribe is already over generously complicated by them…”, so a new section, Notopyron Connor, endemic to New Zealand is proposed to accommodate Australopyrum enysii.
Independently nrDNA ITS sequences confirm that Australopyrum enysii is sister to a clade including the New Zealand Australopyrum calcis and the three species of the New Zealand endemic genus Stenostachys Turcz. (P. J. de Lange, R. C. Gardner & D. J. Keeling pers. comm.).