Surface wax components of five species of Cortaderia (gramineae)—A chemotaxonomic comparison

Abstract

Analyses of the alkanes, fatty acids, n-alkanols and triterpene methyl ethers present in the surface waxes of three indigenous New Zealand species of Cortaderia—C. fulvida, C. richardii, C. toetoe—and two South American species naturalized in New Zealand— C. atacamensis, C. selloana—were performed by means of gas-liquid chromatography and the results applied to an attempted chemical identification of Cortaderia collected at Raglan and Plimmerton, respectively. Although the alkane distribution patterns of the New Zealand species of Cortaderia were similar and so did not permit of any chemotaxonomic distinction among them, there appeared to be a distinction between the New Zealand and South American species in that the former showed a lower percentage of the C 31 component as compared to the C 29 component than the latter. No distinction among any of the species was possible from the results of the fatty acid and n-alkanol analyses but the triterpene methyl ether analyses showed that only New Zealand species contained compounds of this type. Moreover, C. toetoe contained arundoin and the methyl ethers of α-amyrin and β-amyrin whilst C. fulvida and C. richardii contained arundoin only.