Guiding the delimitation of local provenance for Australian native grasses

The provenance of a seed source not only describes its point of collection but can also reflect its evolutionary development. Here, local provenance material may be the best site-adapted material and the use of non-local material, or less `fit' ecotypes may result in establishment failure, long-term mortality or disruption to the surrounding ecosystem. No guidelines for the definition of a provenance currently exist for any Australian native grass, providing a major obstacle for the broad-scale use of Australian native grasses. Understanding the evolutionary forces such as natural selection, gene flow and genetic drift as well as the factors that operate to drive these forces, can provide clues to the definition of a provenance boundary. If native grasses are to retain their adaptive and low input advantages over the use of exotic species then understanding the issues of provenance provides the key to their successful and widespread use.