Keywords:
M. longifolia
,
M. spicata
, Phenology, Chiasma, Sub-tropical, Temperate
Mentha longifolia (L.) L. and M. spicata L., the medicinally important members of Lamiaceae, provide fragrant foliage which is used by locals for culinary and therapeutic purposes as well as by industries for producing pharmaceuticals, essences and food flavourings. To meet the rising demand of non-reproductive parts (leaves) of these species, breeders sought after populations/lines producing more herbage. As climatic properties strongly influence phenotypic traits of medicinal plants, it becomes imperative to analyse M. longifolia and M. spicata growing in different climatic zones for morphological descriptors. This comparison revealed that plants of sub-tropical zone have significantly larger shoots, bear greater number of large sized leaves and longer inflorescences and therefore carry greater commercial value. Since determining timing and duration of different biological events is equally imperative to identify lines which remain available for usage for longer duration, the two species from different zones have been compared for phenological events. These studies revealed marked differences in onset and duration of different phenological events such as sprouting, flower initiation, peak blooming, fruiting, senescence and overall life cycle. As such, present Mentha species from sub-tropical zones having longer life cycle (7.5 months) than those from temperate regions (7 months). To underpin the reasons responsible for morphological and phenological variations in Mentha, meiocytes of plants found in different geographical regions have been analysed for chromosome number and behaviour. While meiocytes of M. longifolia consistently contained 24 chromosomes which paired as 12 bivalents at diplotene/metaphase I and segregated as 12:12 at anaphase I in outnumbering cells, those of M. spicata had 48 chromosomes that associated as 24 bivalents and separated equally at anaphase I. These meiotic features along with high pollen viability indicates scarce influence of cytological aspects on morphological and phenological variability of present plants.
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Senior author is thankful to SERB (Science and Engineering Research Board, New Delhi) for awarding projectentitled “Assessment of cytological, biochemical and molecular variability in Viola species from Jammu andKashmir” (File no. CRG/2018/003919 dated 13.05.2019). Ms. Anjina Devi is thankful to CSIR-HRDG (Council ofScientific and Industrial Research Human Resource Development Group), New Delhi for providing Senior ResearchFellowship (File no. 09/100(0210)/2018-EMR-I and UGC (University Grants Commission), New Delhi forproviding infrastructural facilities to department under DRS SAP II.