Studies on differential growth behaviour of two alpine herbs of Western Himalaya from different altitudes under in vitro conditions

Abstract

Inherent slow growth of alpine plant species as compared to temperate ones has consistently been observed even under in vitro conditions and considered as major bottleneck for rapid mass multiplication. Keeping this in view, different growth parameters including relative growth rate (RGR), specific leaf area (SLA), shoot mass fraction (SMF), leaf mass fraction (LMF), root mass fraction (RMF), respiration rate, carbohydrates, nitrogen content and nitrate reductase (NR) activity of different populations of Picrorhiza kurroa and Rheum emodi were studied under in vitro conditions. The present study gives an insight that regulation of growth in alpine plant species is genetic and it is strongly related with SLA and leaf thickness.