Cytomorphological Study in Genus Cenchrus L.: An Important Medicinal Plant from North India (Family: Poaceae)

摘要

The present study deals with the four species of genus Cenchrus L. based on population analysis from different localities in Haryana and adjoining hills of Shiwalik area. These species i.e., C. biflorus, C. ciliaris, C. pennisetiformis and C. setigerus differ from each other morphologically as well as cytologically. In C. bflorus, cytological studies have been made on 23 populations from the study area and three cytotypes (n=16, 17 and 18) are detected. In C. ciliaris, most commonly found species of the genus, 48 populations were studied and four cytotypes with chromosome numbers n=16, 17, 18 and 36 are found. The population analysis revealed that the tetraploid cytotype (n=18) based on x=9 is better adapted as compared to the other three cytotypes. The tetraploid and aneuploid cytotypes are almost morphologically similar, whereas octaploid shows lot of gigantism. All the studied cytotypes of C. ciliaris show meiotic abnormalities. In C. pennisetiformis, two cytotypes with n=17 and 18 are observed, which were found to be morphologically similar with abnormal meiotic course. In this species, 2n=34 is a new chromosome report. The fourth species C. setigerus, also shows similar cytotypes with n=17 and 18, based on the study of 49 populations. These cytotypes are morphologically indistinct and show overlapping morphometric characters.