Detailed cytomorphological investigations through male meiosis of polypetalous plants from the Kashmir Himalaya

Cytomorphological studies were made on 322 populations of 150 species/153 taxa belonging to 79 genera and 23 families of flowering plants. Out of these, 14 species were cytologically worked out for the first time on a worldwide basis along with B-chromosomes (0–1B) recorded for the first time in Agrimonia eupatoria. Similarly, 29 species were reported with varied chromosomal reports on a worldwide basis. The chromosome numbers ranged from 2n = 10 to 2n = 96 and posed high amount of intraspecific genetic diversity when seen in relation to other reports for the worked out species in light of previous chromosomal databases on India and world basis. The different levels of ploidy in these species/taxa vary from 2x to 12x with the overall polyploidy being 27.45 % and predominant in members belonging to the genera Ranunculus and Epilobium as well as families Ranunculaceae and Rosaceae. In the taxa showing anomalous meiotic behavior, cytomixis is found to be quite common and associated with various meiotic abnormalities in the meiocytes, which ultimately leads to pollen sterility and formation of variable sized pollen grains.