Cytomictic Anomalous Male Meiosis and 2n Pollen Grain Formation in Mertensia echioides Benth. (Boraginaceae) from Kashmir Himalaya

Table 1

Percentage of variously irregular PMCs, pollen sterility, pollen size, and their relative frequency in 3 populations of Mertensia echioides.

Population	P-1	P-2	P-3
Locality/altitude (m)	Razdan Pass; 3600	Gurez; 3200	Thajwas; 3400
PUN^*	56387	56936	56997
Meiotic abnormalities
Syncytes/4x PMCs	06.2 (07/113)	04.3 (4/92)	5.2 (05/95)
PMCs with cytomixis	13.3 (16/120)	6.4 (7/108)	9.8 (11/112)
PMCs with quadrivalent	17.0 (17/100)	—/—	12.2 (12/98)
Syncytes with multivalents	57.1 (4/7)	25 (1/4)	60 (3/5)
PMCs with aneuploidy	05 (06/121)	2.08 (2/96)	3.8 (4/105)
PMCs with sticky chromatin	45 (46/102)	—/—	—/—
Apparent pollen sterility	19 (58/305)	16 (47/287)	18 (53/292)
Average pollen size (R.F.)
	11.87 8.32 {91.5	11.20 9.05 {96}	12.14 8.36 {92.3}
	20.61 12.82 {08.5}	17.60 12.55 {4}	18.90 12.78 {7.7}

R.F.: relative frequency.
Figures in the parentheses represent observed number of cytologically irregular PMCs or sterile pollen grains in the numerator and total number of PMCs or pollen grains in the denominator.
^*PUN is the abbreviation for herbarium of Department of Botany, Punjabi University, Patiala, as per “Index Herbariorum” by P. K. Holmgren and N. H. Holmgren [13].