HIGH COUNTRY GRASSES

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27089, 11 July 1953, Page 5

HIGH COUNTRY GRASSES

Research In Native Species

PROGRESS OF D.S.I.R.

PROJECT

High country farmers can look hopefully toward the work at present being done by the Botany Division of the D.S.JI.R. on high country grasses. The investigations are still purely fundamental, but out of them may come at any time some piece of information of imediate practical value to high country men. They would be unwise to expect anything spectacular soon, but the chance is there, and eventually the work must lead to a greatly increased practical knowledge of the high tussock grasslands. In charge of the work is Mr H. E. Connor, who has for some time urged that though introduced plants may have a valuable place in high country regeneration, the possibilities of native species should also be just as thoroughly explored. A note appeared on this page two years ago in which his collection of bluegrasses (Agropyron scabrum) at the Wither Hills research station was discussed. The work is now being carried on at Bryndwr, and has expanded a great deal in its scope. The earliest botanists did an excellent job of describing, identifying, and naming the huge range of entirely new plants that New Zealand offered them. Men who came later, either Government men, or keen amateurs, carried on the work, but in recent years, little has been done in the high country beyond sporadic projects, none of which was carried on long enough to allow firm conclusions to be reached. The list of these projects is imposing, but it has had little effect on management systems of the high country. Greatly increased knowledge of such matters as the reproductive mechanisms of plants, the effects of environment, and so on, has placed new weapons in the hands of scientists, and it is fundamental work of this type that Mr Connor is doing. It is pure research, but it must be done to build

up detailed and accurate knowledge of the plants being investigated. The work goes beyond botanical description, and seeks answers to questions of details of reproductive mechanisms, and the influence of environment, and

of the reasons for any differences observed. It is an attempt to understand thoroughly the plants of the high country as a basis for practical recoinmendations for high-country management.

Big- Family For several reasons the bluegrasses were selected as the first group for study. They are widely distributed; they still hold the high reputation as fodder plants they earned among the earliest settlers; they are members of a big family which includes many fodder plants; and Agropyron scabrum displays wide variability, which gives a botanist plenty of scope. The emphasis is at present on blue grasses, but a niimber of other native species are having progressively more attention paid to them, such species as the plume grasses, and the blue, hard, silver tussocks.

The bluegrasses show several promising characteristics. The biggest species. Agropyron scabrum, varies in form from short, wiry types with little apparent value for grazing, to big, leafy, succulent types which appear to offer great possibilities for grazing. It has been found that these varieties never interbreed, so that if one of commercial value is found, it should be possible, other things being equal, to introduce it to new districts without danger of losing its characteristics through crossing with local types. These bluegrasses are good seeders. A botanical curiosity is that while A. scabrum will not cross with its fellow varieties within the species, it crosses readily with another species. A. Kirkii, which is a North Island coastal arid low hill-country form. Plants of this cross show tremendous hybrid vigour, and stand out unmistakably in the collection at Bryndwr. Unfortunately. the plant is rather sterile. One immediate practical result of the work has been the recognition of a new species. A. tenue. which is a widely distributed hill country form. It was placed among the scabrums by one of the early botanists. Buchanan, 70 years ago, but its variability so struck him that he gave a much more detailed description of it than he did of any of the other variants. It has now been shown to be a distinct species. New Zealand has about 120 native species of grasses, of which about 20 appear to have economic possibilities. At present there are about 25 species under observation at Bryndwr. The work so far is in the realms of pure science, but this laboratory work must be done to give a sound foundation for the practical results which will follow in time. Everyone interested in the back country should be gratified that at last some fundamental research is being applied to the back country.