Leaf variation studies in Valeriana jatamansi Jones-an endangered medicinal plant of temperate Himalayas

A comprehensive overview of breeding strategy to improve phenotypic and quality traits in Valeriana jatamansi Jones

“…The plant height in the western Himalayas varied among the female and hermaphrodite plants. Among the female plants, plant height was found to be 48.4–80 cm while 44.2–68.2 cm in the case of hermaphrodite flowers [ 40 ]. However, Mukherjee and Chakraborty [ 41 ] reported that female plants are shorter in height than hermaphrodite plants.…”

“…However, Mukherjee and Chakraborty [ 41 ] reported that female plants are shorter in height than hermaphrodite plants. Plant height varies according to environmental conditions [ 40 ]. Whereas, in the Eastern Himalayas different height ranges of female and hermaphrodite flowers were reported by Chakraborty et al [ 42 ] where female plants were in the range of 8–18 cm and hermaphrodite plants were in the range of 9–15 cm.…”

“…Leaf margins are found to be of four types viz; entire, serrate, crenate-serrate and entire sinuate. Thakur et al [ 48 ] studied the variation in leaf characters and observed that all leaf characters are stable except leaf base and margin. The leaf margin and leaf base could be a highly plastic character which changed according to the growth and development of a plant.…”

“…Karnwal et al [ 49 ] evaluated the biomass yield of different sex forms and found that dry rootstock biomass/plant was maximum for the hermaphrodite plant (13.43) compared to the female plants. Thakur et al [ 40 ] also compares the biomass of female and hermaphrodite plants. During this comparative study, it was found that maximum rootstock biomass (fresh 68.3 gm) and (dry 19.84 gm) weight/plant were in female plants which were statistically at par with (fresh 61.3 gm) and (dry 17.85 gm) weight of hermaphrodite plants.…”

“…Exploration is an integral activity of breeding programs followed by collecting genetic resources and unique germplasm lines can directly be developed as a variety/cultivar of that species. Wide range of phenotypic and chemical diversity is observed in germplasm collections of V. jatamansi [ 40 , 42 , 55 ]. Some of the elite germplasm lines have been listed by different researchers and also registered with PGRC, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), ICAR, New Delhi ( Table 4 ).…”