Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2022 | 14(3): 20808–20810
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7615.14.3.20808-20810
#7615 | Received 11 August 2021 | Final
received 06 February 2022 | Finally accepted 01 March 2022
Abnormalities in the female spikelets of Coix lacryma-jobi L. (Poaceae)
India
Nilesh Appaso
Madhav 1 & Kumar Vinod Chhotupuri Gosavi 2
1,2 Department of Botany, HPT Arts
& RYK Science College, Nashik, Maharashtra 422003, India.
1 nileshmadhav@gmail.com, 2 kumarvinodgosavi@gmail.com
(corresponding author)
Editor: Mandar Nilkanth Datar, MACS-Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, India. Date of
publication: 26 March 2022 (online & print)
Citation:
Madhav, N.A. & K.V.C. Gosavi (2022). Abnormalities
in the female spikelets of Coix
lacryma-jobi
L. (Poaceae) India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(3): 20808–20810. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7615.14.3.20808-20810
Copyright: © Madhav & Gosavi 2022. Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction,
and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to
the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Core Research grant scheme of Science and Engineering research Board
(SERB), File no. CRG/2018/001381.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: Authors are thankful to SERB-DST Government of India
(project under the scheme of core research grant; File No. CRG/20l8/00l381) for
financial assistance; principal, HPT Arts and RYK Science College, Nashik for
laboratory facilities.
Coix lacryma-jobi L. consists of three varieties, Coix
lacryma-jobi var. stenocarpa Oliv., Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen (Rom. Caill.) Stapf, and Coix lacryma-jobi var.
puellarum (Balansa)
E.G. Camus & A. Camus. C. lacryma-jobi var. stenocarpa can be easily distinguished by very
much longer than broad and having cylindrical or roughly bottle shaped utricle
and this variety distributed in South East Asia (Bor
1960). Coix lacryma-jobi
var. ma-yuen can be distinguished by having soft utricle than other
taxa of Coix and cultivated in China, Myanmar,
and northeastern India for its medicinal and food
value (Arora 1977; Li 2006; Xi et al. 2016). Coix
lacryma-jobi var. puellarum
can be distinguished by its perennial habit and white to bluish globose
utricle (ca. 4 mm in diam.), distributed in Myanmar, Malaysia, and Indo-China (Bor 1960). Coix lacryma-jobi is widely distributed throughout pantropic
in different habitat like seasonal streams, stagnant water, along seashore,
saline water, muddy region, slopes of hills; thus, the species shows a range of
morphological variations. During taxonomical study of the genus Coix, authors collected C. lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi
from different habitat in different regions of the Western Ghats and the
western coast, India (Figure 1). Some populations show same type of
abnormalities but these are rare.
Usually, all
the taxa of Coix shows single basal sessile
pistillate flower, however, rarely two to three pistillate flowers are reported
in C. lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi
for the first time in present communication. In three pistillate flowers, top
most flower becomes rudimentary. These abnormalities located from hilly slopes
of Harishchandra gad, cultivated fields of Rajur, Aluva, and Kalmanja from state of
Maharashtra, Kerala, and Karnataka, respectively (Table 1, Figure 1, Image 1).
That means the genus shows more advance nature as reducing pistillate flowers
and showing affinities towards related genera like Polytoca
R.Br., Tripsacum L., and Trilobachne M. Schenck ex Henrard as these genera consists of more than one
pistillate flowers. Another interesting rare abnormality is appearances of leaf
blade on utricle with range of variation in length. During our investigations
populations bearing extended leaf blades of utricles from 0.5 mm to 10 cm these
populations were in different habitats like on hilly forest slopes of
Harishchandra gad, cultivated marshy water-logged soil of Rajur,
and estuary of Arabian sea of Devgad (Table 1, Figure
1, Image 1). Such abnormality is relict of leaf sheath, which is modified as
protective covering around the seed and shows affinities with C. gasteenii B.K.Simon.
Table 1. Observed
localities in Western Ghats and western coast of Coix
lacryma-jobi L. populations.
|
|
Localities |
Abnormalities observed |
|
|
No. of female spikelets
more than one |
Extended leaf blade |
||
|
1 |
Shivaji University Kolhapur (Dist:
Kolhapur; MH) |
- |
- |
|
2 |
Harishchandragad (Dist:
Ahmednagar; MH) |
+ |
+ |
|
3 |
Kudal (Dist: Sindhudurg; MH) |
- |
- |
|
4 |
Napane (Dist: Sindhudurg; MH) |
- |
- |
|
5 |
Titvala (Dist: Thane; MH) |
- |
- |
|
6 |
Devgad (Dist: Sindhudurg; MH) |
- |
- |
|
7 |
Igatpuri (Dist: Nashik; MH) |
- |
+ |
|
8 |
Gavalwadi (Dist: Nashik; MH) |
- |
- |
|
9 |
Tryambakeshwar (Dist:
Nashik; MH) |
- |
- |
|
10 |
Mokhada (Dist:
Palghar; MH) |
- |
- |
|
11 |
Plot pada (Dist: Thane; MH) |
- |
- |
|
12 |
Rajur (Dist: Ahmednagar; MH) |
+ |
+ |
|
13 |
Aluva (Dist: Ernakulam; KL) |
+ |
- |
|
14 |
Kalmanja, (Dist: Dakshina Kannada; KA) |
+ |
- |
Dist—District | MH—Maharashtra | KL—Kerala | KA—Karnataka.
For figure &
image - - click here
References
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