In Australia, the genus Elymus L., as currently interpreted, includes two s
pecies: E. scaber (R.Br.) A.Love [with two varieties E. scaber var. scaber
and E. scaber var. plurinervis (Vickery) B.K.Simon]; and E. multiflorus (Ho
ok.f.) Love & Connor. A third species, apomictic E. rectisetus (Nees) A.Lov
e & Connor, which is naturalised in New Zealand from Australia has not been
included in Australian regional Floras except as a synonym of E. scaber. A
preliminary phenetic analysis of morphological characters of 19 specimens
and reports on recent work indicate that at least four major entities exist
: short-awned entities (E. scaber sensu Labillardiere); long-awned apomicti
c entities (sensu E. rectisetus); long-awned entities with large glumes (E.
scaber var. plurinervis); and very short-awned entities (E. multiflorus).
In a study of seed set, long-awned entities of E. scaber exhibited relative
ly low seed set (12-26%), a reported feature of E. rectisetus. The results,
taxonomy, and recent studies of the reproductive biology, geographic distr
ibution and genome constitution of taxa of Elymus common to Australia and N
ew Zealand are discussed, and a revision of the current taxonomic ranking i
s suggested.