TITLE:
Floral Homeostasis Breakdown in Endangered Plant Valeriana jatamansi Jones (Valerianaceae) in North Eastern Himalayan Region
AUTHORS:
Soumendra Chakraborty, Dhiman Mukherjee, Sibdas Baskey
KEYWORDS:
Floral Homeostasis, Deformed Flower Morphology, Conservation, Endangered Medicinal Plant, Fitness of Population, Silent Mutation
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.6 No.19,
December
10,
2015
ABSTRACT: An inhabitant of north western Himalayan region and a gynodioceious plant having a lot of medicinal
properties, Valeriana jatamansi Jones (Valerianaceae) is an enlisted endangered plant in
the world. It was introduced in the research station of North Bengal Agricultural University
(27.06°N 88.47°E) situated in north eastern Himalayan region of Darjeeling district in the state
of West Bengal from Sikkim Sangtok (27°25'N 88°31'E) of north Sikkim area in India for the
purpose of conservation. As we noticed some irregular development of floral organs, we investigated
some pertinent questions regarding ecological aberrations found in plants. We found
plants introduced in north eastern Himalayan region changed their homology of number flower
petals and position of stamens seen naturally in north western Himalayan region as per the reports.
Was there any genetic or extreme environmental stress condition caused a sudden change
in floral structure as it is generally known as a rare phenomenon and frequently not seen? What
were the correlations of different floral parts and fitness of population in different morphotypes?
We predicted possible outcomes of seed setting by univariate regression models in a particular
environment in addition to this investigation. We proposed three models of heterozygousity for
answering the reasons of unstable floral form from a general known floral form, where silent
mutations help the plants to survive in adverse conditions in spite of deformed or variable formed
of floral morphology.