New Chromosome Count for Chara hornemannii f. longifolia(Rob.) RDW: A New Record from India.

Abstract

Extensive cytological and cytomorphological work has been done on Indian Charophytes during past three decades and published a good amount of chromosome numbers of various taxa. Major contribution came in light through the work of Khan (1964, 1965a, b), Sarma (1967a, b, c), Sinha andVerma (1970), Ramjee and Sarma (1971), Ahmad and Sinha (1973), Mukherjee and Noor (1973), Chatterjee (1976), Noor and Mukherjee (1977), Ramjee and Bhatnagar (1978), Ray and Chatterjee (1989), Khan (1991), Pundhir and Vidyavati (1993) and others. But there appears to be no contribution on the cytology and cytomorphology of Indian Charophytes from North-Western Region except Sarma and Bala (1984), Pundhir and Gautam (1993) and Pundhir et al. (1993). Keeping this in mind, authors have made exhaustive survey of this region and undertaken the studies on cytology of these collected specimens. During our present investigation, we came across a new chromosome count n=63 for C. hornemannii f. longifolia (Rob.) RDW, which for this particular taxon is a new record from India and are new to science. Materials and methodsLiving specimens of C. hornemannii f. longifolia were collected from Sruinsar lake, Jammu during June 1991. Young growing fertile tips were fixed in absolute alcohol-glacial acetic acid (3:1) for cytological studies. Plants were further preserved in 4% formaldehyde solution for morphological observations. Identification was made following Wood and Imahori (1965). Godward's iron-alum acetocarmine technique (1948) was employed for squashing spermatoge nous antheridial filaments. No pretreatment was given. Chromosome number was determined at metaphase when chromosomes were found to be highly condensed and well spreaded. Camera-lucida drawings and photographs were taken from temporary preparations. Slides were made permanent passing through propionic acid and butanol and then mounted in euperal. Voucher specimens and permanent slides are deposited in