Karyotaxonomy of South Indian Balsaminaceae

Abstract

Cytological studies with special reference to karyotaxonomy have been made in 14 taxa. First record of chromosome numbers has been made in 4 species and in the rest of the taxa studied, the present report confirms the earlier observations. The chromosome numbers determined in the present study range from 2n=6 to 2n=44. The karyotype analyses show that each taxa has a distinct karyotype of chromosomes. Even the closely related species of a genus with same chromosome number have distinct karyotype of chromosomes indicating the karyotype alterations of chromosomes playing important role in speciation.