Abstract
Variability and diversity of Phyllanthus amarus Schum. & Thonn., an important medicinal plant species, in its natural habitats in Kerala State of India was analyzed based on the observations on eleven salient morphological characters recorded from thirty populations of the species distributed across Palakkad, Malappuram and Kozhikode districts. Among the eleven characters studied, seven characters such as plant height, number of brachyblasts, number of leaves per brachyblast, leaf breadth, length between adjacent brachyblasts, number of flowers per brachyblast and fresh weight of plants showed statistically significant difference between the populations. The interrelationship between the characters and their association was also studied. Fresh plant weight showed significant positive correlation with five characters. Number of brachyblasts and number of leaves per brachyblast showed significant positive correlation with four characters each. Number of branches and number of flowers per brachyblast showed significant positive correlation with three characters each. Plant height, leaf length and leaf area showed significant positive correlation with one character each and length of branches, leaf breadth and length between adjacent brachyblasts showed no significant correlation with anyone of the characters studied. By factor analysis four factors could be extracted and number of branches, fresh plant weight, length of branches and leaf breath were found to be the lead characters. Highly significant variability with regard to most of the morphological characters indicates that Phyllanthus amarus populations in the study area are presently stable and diverse. But care should be taken to protect its gene pool from damages due to natural as well as man made interferences.
Keywords
Phyllanthus amarus, Medicinal Plant, Natural Habitats, Morphological Character, Kerala State