ARTICLE
TITLE

Dwindling Numbers of Eremostachys superba Royle ex Benth. in its Type Locality: Mohand (Dehradun)

SUMMARY

An assessment of Eremostachys superba (Lamiaceae) was done in the type locality ofMohand (Dehradun) for its gradual decrease in the number from 100 to 25 in the lastdecades and only 7-9 plants at present. A regular visit has revealed that no flowering hasbeen observed in the area from past two years and due to this no breeding has taken placewhich could result in further decrease in the number of the plants. The plant mainlybreeds through cross pollination and no other population exists in the nearby area. But asno flowering has been observed in the area, the chances of self fertilization is also nil andit means that no propagation is taking place in the area. Further trampling of the plant bycattle grazing in the area has caused deterioration of the existing plants. The experimentscarried out in the laboratory indicate that the seeds produced by the selfing have verypoor germination percentage. As there is no other nearby population in the area, all theseeds that were produced in the earlier decades might have been the result of selfing andhence could not germinate under natural conditions. This strongly indicated occurrenceof inbreeding depression and loss of fitness of the offspring right from the stage ofgermination, which is harmful for the perpetuation of the species and thereby leading toits rarity and making its conservation a challenge.

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