Assessment of morphological diversity in Acorus calamus L., an economically important endangered medicinal plant species of Kashmir valley

Acorus calamus L. is an economically important and endangered medicinal plant of wetlands of Kashmir. The present study was carried out for two years. The mapping of genetic diversity of A. calamus was assessed in four wetlands viz. Hokersar (Srinagar), Shallabugh (Ganderbal), Manasbal lake (Ganderbal) and Anchar lake (Srinagar) of Kashmir Valley using Mahalanobis D² analysis. The results revealed the presence of 5 clusters for 40 populations studied with one population in cluster^-1; nine in cluster-2; ten in cluster-3; two in cluter-4 and eighteen in cluster-5. Majority of populations were grouped in the cluster-5, followed by cluster-.3. The maximum intra-cluster distance (D²) of (32.579) was observed in cluster-4 and the maximum inter-cluster distance (D²) of (32.579) was observed in cluster^-1. Present study revealed that plant species possessed sufficient genetic diversity among the populations. Cluster-5 showed superiority with respect of the maximum mean plant height plant^-1 (93.30 cm), leaf length plant^-1 (90.92 cm ), leaf width plant^-1(2.40 cm), fresh weight of rhizome per cm length (2.45 g), rhizome length plant^-1 (21.60 cm), rhizome diameter plant^-1 (1.95 cm), dry weight of rhizome per cm length (1.05 g), distance between nodes plant^-1 (2.08 cm) and number of nodes plant^-1 (14) as compared to other clusters. Out of five clusters, cluster-5 was promising as the genotypes reflected were better in yield and yield attributing traits., Cluster-5, comprising of eighteen populations were from the undisturbed area, (Shallabugh). The populations from the same cluster can be multiplied for initiating a conservation and breeding program thet can serve as a tool for the scientific community to evolve better contemporary varieties of A. calamus