Journal Article

Delimitation of Quantitative Morphological Feature of Female Plants of Cycas L. Species of Kannur District, Kerala

Muthappan, Venkatesan, Muthuchamy, Muthukumar, Muthukumar, Anbazhagi, Srivastava, Ramesh Chandra, Manjusha, Kannankodantavida

2024

Overview

Cycas L. is an economically important threatened genus at risk of extinction due to natural population degradation. The present study observed unexplored populations in the Kannur district, Kerala, India, including the Kannavam Forest Reserve (KF) during 2021–2023. The normality of the datasets was checked using the Anderson-Darling test in R using the “nortest” package, and the variability in distribution was found using integrated R scripts in QGIS 3.0. and SPSS 25. “corr” and “ggcorrplot” packages of RStudio plotted the Pearson’s correlation matrix from normalised datasets. Hierarchical clustering on principal components utilised Euclidean distance matrix and Ward linkage method from “FactoMineR” and “factoextra” packages in RStudio. Normality tests and histograms showed the variability and skewness in the data. Pearson’s correlation matrix revealed a high positive correlation of petiole length with spines to the total length of the petiole (0.74) and the spine percentage on the petiole (0.71). Moreover, megasporophyll characters exhibited a high positive correlation between apical spine length and the length of the infertile lamina of the megasporophyll (0.84) and fertile region length with the number of ovules (0.70). Hierarchical clustering analysis suggested two clusters in the area by retaining eight principal components concerning eigenvalues, scree plots and cumulative variance. Cluster one was Cycas circinalis L., and cluster two was Cycas nathorstii J. Schust. based on the recorded morphological features. The study reported the existence of Cycas nathorstii for the first time in the Kannur district and the Kannavam Forest Reserve.

• Publisher: Springer US,New York Botanical Garden,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Biodiversity / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Cluster analysis / Clustering / Correlation analysis / Cycadales / Cycads / Cycas / Cycas rumphii / Data analysis / data collection / Datasets / Economic importance / Eigenvalues / Euclidean geometry / extinction / Females / forest reserves / genus / Identification and classification / India / Life Sciences / Morphology / Ovules / Packages / petioles / Physiological aspects / Plant Anatomy/Development / Plant Ecology / Plant Physiology / Plant Sciences / Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography / Population studies / Protection and preservation / risk / species / Species extinction / Spine / Spines / Variability / variance