Question

Plant species shows several morphological variations in response to altitudinal gradient. When grown under similar conditions of growth, the morphological variations disappear and all the variants have common morphology. What are these variants called?

Answer 1

Ecads

• The plant variants that show morphological variations in response to altitudinal gradient are called Ecads.
• However, these populations can interbreed among themselves as they have similar genetic composition and are capable of attaining the same morphological forms when provided with similar conditions.
• Example, Euphorbia hirta, Arabidopsis thaliana etc.
• The population of plant species, when subjected to climatic and other edaphic variations for longer durations, undergoes genetic modifications to adapt to their respective environment and are known as ecotypes.