Pollination behaviour of Nardostachys jatamansi DC., an endangered medicinal and aromatic herb

Nardostachys jatamansi is a perennial, endangered medicinal and aromatic herb of family Valerianaceae, distributed in subalpine to alpine areas. Being an endangered species it should be conserved through in situ as well as ex situ methods. Study of reproductive biology is necessary for effective conservation of endangered plants and pollination behaviour is an integral part of reproductive biology. Present study deals with pollination behaviour of N. jatamansi. Parthenocarpy, passive autogamy, active autogamy, geitonogamy and xenogamy experiments were applied in this study. Flowering (peak) takes place during the month of July–August and anthesis between 7:00–11:00 h. Anthers disperse pollen grains after 24 h of anthesis. Stigma is of protogynous type. Fruit set recorded in above experiments was 40% in passive autogamy, 70% in active autogamy, 53.33% in xenogamy and 86.67% in geitonogamy as well as open pollination experiments. The species is self-pollinated but dependent on pollinators for optimum pollination. Cross pollination may have adaptive value for species as it compensate failure of autogamy and also maintains genetic variability in the population. Crop improvement program may be initiated through xenogamy.