Detailed knowledge about the meiotic behavior of threatened plant species is crucial to develop successful conservation strategies. Here we provide a detailed account of the male meiotic behavior of Trillium govanianum Wall ex. D. Don an endangered endemic medicinal plant species of the Himalaya. We collected the plant material from the Bangus valley of the Kashmir Himalaya. The species showed chromosome number n=2x= 10, which is the first gametophytic report for this species. The pollen fertility was found to be in the range of 88-90%. The reduced fertility was due to the meiotic abnormalities such as chromatin stickiness, a late disjunction of bivalents, chromatin bridges, formation of laggards, and polysporads with micronuclei. The seed set was found to be 65.85%. The reduced seed set might be attributed to the presence of various meiotic abnormalities observed.

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The present study reports the chromosome number and meiotic behavior including microsporogenesis of Actaea kashmiriana J. Compton and its relation with pollen fertility and seed set. The species showed a chromosome count of 2n=4x=32 and meiotic chromosomal irregularities such as chromatin stickiness, cytomixis, laggard formation, chromosomal bridges, micronuclei and polysporads. B-chromosomes were also observed in this species. Due to these meiotic irregularities, reduced pollen fertility was observed in the range of 85-87%, and the seed set was also significantly reduced to 67.16 to 70.45%.

Understanding the vegetation and soil ecology of natural habitats harbouring threatened species is critical in conservation planning and restoration. The present study investigated the vegetation composition and soil physico‐chemical properties of natural habitats of Trillium govanianum – a threatened Himalayan endemic species. We laid 120 quadrats across eight randomly selected sites where the species was growing in the Kashmir Himalaya. We collected the soil samples from these sites and determined soil physico‐chemical properties using standard methods. Across all the sites, we found a total of 57 plant species with dominance of Rosaceae and Ranunculaceae. The importance value index (IVI) results revealed that Fragaria nubicola, Corydalis diphylla, Galium aparine, and Leucanthemum vulgare, were the dominant species in T. govanianum habitats. The density, abundance and IVI of three‐leaf vegetative plants was higher than one‐leaf vegetative and three‐leaf reproductive plants across all the study sites. We found that T. govanianum alone forms 23.5% positive, 0 negative, 76.4% random co‐occurrences with other associated species in its habitats. Our results reveal that the variations in vegetation composition among the sites was influenced by differences in soil properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that several soil properties such as organic carbon (OC), nitrogen, potassium, and sulphur were concentrated in five sites, namely Dara, Drung, Bangus, Gulmarg and Doodhpathri, which also showed the highest density, frequency, and abundance of T. govanianum. Overall, our study contributes quantitative information on the vegetation and soil ecology of T. govanianum‐habitats, which in turn can help in developing conservation strategies for this threatened species, and its sustainable management and habitat restoration.

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