Author(s)

Soumendra Chakraborty^1*, Dhiman Mukherjee², Sibdas Baskey³

¹Division of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, India.
²Division of Agronomy, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, India.
³Division of Plant Pathology, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, India.

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.

Floral Homeostasis, Deformed Flower Morphology, Conservation, Endangered Medicinal Plant, Fitness of Population, Silent Mutation

Chakraborty, S. , Mukherjee, D. and Baskey, S. (2015) Floral Homeostasis Breakdown in Endangered Plant Valeriana jatamansi Jones (Valerianaceae) in North Eastern Himalayan Region. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 6, 3119-3138. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2015.619304.