Chlorophytum laxum R. Rr. (Liliaceae) is a common perennial herb occurring in many parts of India, Ceylon, Borneo, Tropical Africa and Australia. The earlier cytological studies report two numbers of chromosomes, viz. 2n = 14 & 16, for the species. The present study, based on meiotic behaviour, concludes that this species is a segmental allopolyploid from two closely related but still unknown species with 2n = 8 chromosomes. Further evolution proceeded in two different directions. In one, diploidization by chromosomal rearrangements resulted into species with 2n = 16 chromosomes, while in the other, elimination of a non‐homologous segment gave rise to species with 2n = 14 chromosomes and several autopolyploids.
Taxonomy of six species of Chlorophytum (Liliaceae) from India has been reassessed in the light of their morphological and cytological characters. C. tuberosum (Roxb.) Baker (2n= 16), a wide‐spread species, is morphologically well defined but C. bharuchae Ansari, Raghavan & Hemadri (2n= 16) has been confused with C. glaucum Dalz. and C. glaucoides Blatter (both 2n= 42) by earlier workers. C. malabaricum Baker (2n= 42) is a delicate species and occurs in the Nilgiris and the Western ghats. Two closely allied species, C. nepalense (Lindley) Baker and C. khasianum Hooker fil. (both 2n= 56) are distributed in Eastern India. The first two species, with 2n= 16, have been considered as at the diploid level with base number 8 while the rest of them appear to be autoallopolyploids with base number 7.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.