Format: ORAL

Shrirang R. Yadav

Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India

Pancratiumspecies grow sporadically throughout the country and individual plants are usually sparsely distributed. The species are ephemeral bulbous perennials. The emergence of scape and flowering mostly depends on the pre-monsoon rain pattern. Following the first pre-monsoon showers, the species flower only once in a year for a short period (10-15 days). Therefore, catching the species in flowering is a difficult task. Consequently, the genus is taxonomically poorly studied.Moreover, the species have been distinguished based on overlapping quantitative characters. Protologues are very brief and the type specimens are either not available or poorly preserved. Therefore, there is a need to revisit the taxonomy and develop standard taxonomic methods to circumscribe species unambiguously. Accordingly, attempts have been made over the last 20 years to study the Indian species (distributed across ca. 75 accessions from various localities in India) in the field as well as under cultivation. I recognize nine species in India and provide an account of diagnostic characters and standard terminology that can be used to distinguish them. Additionally, chromosomal and crossability data are used to understand species limits. Most of the Pancratium species are diploid with 2n = 2x = 22 chromosomes but a few, viz. P. triflorum and P. zeylanicum exhibit triploid (2n = 3x = 33) cytotypes as well. Karyotypes are represented by m (metacentric), sm (submetacentric), st (subtelocentric) and t (acrocentric) chromosomes. About 60 interspecific crosses involving eight species were made. Interspecific crosses among the Indian species produced fully fertile hybrids indicating that they represent a single biological species. The differences in characters (fixed genetically) among the populations (of species) probably represent ecotypes adapted to local environmental conditions.