Author

Hrishi Manchanda, Haleema Asrat Lone, Pooja Devi, Tasir Iqbal, Geeta Sharma*

Abstract

Aloe arborescens plants growing in three different locations of Jammu (J&K), named as CG, BG-I and II have been scrutinised for morphological variability, ethnobotanical uses and karyotypic aspects. These plants carry great ornamental and medicinal value, and are used for moisturising skin, treating burns and injuries, and curing gastric disorders. Phenotypic analysis of Aloe plants growing at varying locations revealed that CG plants inhabiting more sun-exposed sites differentiated large sized leaves, inflorescences, flowers and the heavy fruits containing greater number of seeds. Floral adaptations of this species including clustering of flowers in inflorescences, floral fragrance along with high pollen-ovule ratio and insect pollination indicates its forming seed through xenogamy. Since previous meiotic studies based on CG plants pointed towards their segmental allotetraploid nature, to ascertain the same, twenty-eight chromosomes of the representative sporophytic complement were analysed for size, form and possible grouping. Based on overall morphology, these chromosomes got placed in three homo- and four heteromorphic quadruples. This grouping along with previous reporting of 38% meiocytes with quadri- to bivalents and placement of 14 chromosomes of the gametophytic complement (1n=14) in five homo- and two heteromorphic pairs establishes the segmental allotetraploid nature of A. arborescens.

Pages:79-84

Doi Number 10.61289/jibs2026.04.25.0362

Keywords Aloe arborescens; segmental allotetraploid; karyotype; phenotypic variability