Cytological studies on certain Acanthaceae from Central India

Cytological studies have been made on 19 species of Acanthaceae from Pachmarhi hills in Central India. Present studies reveal the first count of chromosome numbers for four species, namely,Dyschoriste depressa Nees,n=30;Lepidagathis fasciculata Nees,n=10;L. hyalina Nees,n=10 andJusticia diffusa Willd. var.prostrata Roxb.,n=9. New cytotypes have been located in three species asHemigraphis latebrosa Nees,n=28 (4x);Rungia parviflora Nees,n=13 (2x) andR. pectinata Nees,n=13 (2x). Diploid cytotypes of three species,viz., Blepharis maderaspatensis (Linn.) Roth,n=15;Justicia betonica Linn.,n=17 andThunbergia alata Bojer ex. Sims,n=9 have been detected for the first time from India. An analysis of the worked out species reveals the existence of only 10·53% polyploid species.