Cytology in few medicinally important wild taxa from high altitude regions of North-West Himalaya of Himachal Pradesh (India)

The aim of the present study was to explore the cytological knowledge in few medicinally important wild flowering plants inhabiting high altitude regions of northwest Himalaya. Meiotic studies were performed in 14 populations of five species, namely, Euphrasia himalayica Wettst. (2n=22), Lancea tibetica Hook. f. & Thomson (2n=18), Phlomis bracteosa Royle ex Benth. (2n=44), Picrorhiza kurrooa Royle ex Benth. (2n=34) and Thymus linearis Benth. (2n=26) growing in Lahaul-Spiti and Chamba districts of Himachal Pradesh. Phlomis bracteosa, is a tetraploid while other species are at diploid level. The report of 2n=18 for Lancea tibetica is the first ever chromosome number record for the genus on world-wide basis while diploid chromosome count for E. himalayica and tetraploid count for P. bracteosa are new to science. For rest of the species previous reports have been confirmed.