Medicinal & Aromatic Plants
Open Access

Abstract

Morphometric Analysis of Datura Plant to Understand Variation and Similarities among Four Major Species

Nandini D, Ravikumar BS and Prasanna Rashmi KK

Datura, well known for its poisonous and hallucinogenic properties has great importance in . Seeds and leaves are used for treating various ailments. Four commonly occurring Datura species were considered for morphometric analyis to supplement precise variability in statistical terms to taxonomy. For each quantitatiave trait an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test is conducted to test whether the means of three or more groups are the same. Turkey-Kramer test of individual charecteristics provided support to species wise grouping that indicate significant differncences among populations. Among fifteen traits measured, at least 13 traits vary between any two species. Cluster analysis reveals that D. metel and D. innoxia has related origin, D. stramonium and D. ferox forms separate group.