High Altitude Plant Physiology Research Centre, Garhwal University, Srinagar-246174 (India)
Seedlings of a lowland and a highland species of Anaphalis were grown at three altitudes. It was observed that while lowland species shows a considerable reduction in morphological manifestations with increasing altitudes, the highland species is less plastic with respect to changes in morphological characters. All morphological characters of lowland species were negatively correlated with minimum air temperature indicating a prominent inluence of night temperature on these characters. It seems that while the flexibility in the characters of the lowland species is environmentally controlled that in the highland species is genetically controlled. Significance of these differences are discussed.
