Aegilops columnaris

In Armenia this species is threatened by uncontrolled grazing and agricultural expansion, and is assigned a category of Near Threatened based on its regional extent of occurrence and area of occupancy, and decline in extent, quality and area of habitat (Haruntyunyan et al. 2010). No other major threats to this species have been identified (Economou 2013).

The genus Aegilops is listed in Annex I of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as part of the wheat gene pool.  

The species is listed as as Least Concern in Europe and EU 27 (Economou 2013).

There are 202 germplasm accessions of wild origin reported by Genesys of which 113 are backed up at a second genebank. Furthermore, 72 accessions are duplicated and conserved ex situ in the Svalbard Seed Vault. Out of the 239 accessions, 189 were collected within the species' native range (61 from Armenia, 45 from Turkey, 34 from Syria, 22 from Lebanon, 13 from Azerbaijan, nine from Iran, three from Greece, one from Turkmenistan and one from Iraq). A further five were collected from outside the species' known native range (two from Kazakhstan, one from China, one from Portugal and one from Russia) and eight are of undisclosed country of origin (Genesys Global Portal on Plant Genetic Resources 2017).

As identified by Economou (2013), subpopulations from Greece are still under-represented in germplasm collections, so further collection and duplication from this country is recommended. Furthermore, according to Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI 2013), this species has living collections in two botanic gardens worldwide, although the origin and locality of the collections are not detailed in this resource (garden locations are undisclosed to protect rare and valuable plant species).

The main recommendations of Haruntyunyan et al. (2010) for Aegilops spp. in Armenia are to ensure that in situ and ex situ conservation is maintained, and ex situ material is used to restore lost populations in their areas of origin where applicable. 

The European regional Red List assessment for this species (Economou 2013) states that this species is known to occur in at least five protected areas, and also states that monitoring should be put in place at these sites.