• Sheetal Anup Kalhapure

Pteridophytes are one of the important components of any mountainous floras well as considered as one of the successful plant groups on the earth. Pteridophytes are vascular cryptogams and form a neglected group of plants in biodiversity. They almost distributed in Western Ghats, Himalaya and considered as lower vascular plants. Fern acclimatization and conservation can be considered as a part of conservation biology. Various techniques are established for conservation of medicinal, rare, endangered ferns. Whole ecosystems and biodiversity is considered because of various conservation programmes. Various medicinal ferns also acclimatized under Pune condition and they are conserved. Ferns are one of the successful plant groups on the earth and for reproduction they require a lot of water. They almost distributed in Western Ghats, Himalaya and western ghat. Rural population and many tribal communities are using many ferns and fern allies for treatment of various diseases. About 110 genera and 600 species are fund in India (Sukumaran et.al.2009). Many taxa of Pteridophytes have been lost or eradicated from Western Ghats due to the present pace of rapid industrialization and exploitation of natural resources. The change in climate manipulates the ecological features of an ecosystem and has huge effects on plants growth. The environmental factors interact with plants and alter their physiological functions (Hegland et al., 2009). The environmental factors that influence plant growth and reproduction are light, temperature, water, nutrients and diseases or insect. There are many other types of stresses caused by the changes in the surrounding area of plant either in a minor or major way. These stresses effect plant growth and in the long term and affect the survival of plant. Accordingly, there is evidence that species restricted to poor resource environments present regular but low levels in functional responses and ecologically wide species show an effective light use both in sun and in shade. Most studies addressing the relationship between phenotypic plasticity and ecological breadth of plants have not included a field quantification of ecological breadth for each species, nor in-situ ecophysiological measurements. Exhaustive systematic survey of pteridophytic localities for many years by Mahabale (1987) has revealed the occurrence of 59 species from 35 genera in Western Ghats of Maharashtra. Blatter and Almeida (1922) have described 57 species occurring in Bombay Presidency. On the whole, Maharashtra is quite rich in pteridophytes, there are about 55-60 ferns and 11 fern allies known, so far (Mahabale, 1987). The medicinal uses of some ferns and pteridophytes of India have also been described by Caius (1935 b) and Nair (1959). The medicinal uses of 61 different fern and fern allies have been described by Benjamin and Manikam (2007). Acclimatization is the process of an individual organism adjusting to a gradual change in its environment, such as a change in temperature, humidity, light intensity, photoperiod, soil pH etc., and allowing it to maintain performance across a range of environmental conditions. Acclimatization occurs in a short period of time and within the organism's lifetime. Organisms can adjust their morphological, behavioural, physical, and biochemical traits in response to changes in their environment (Anonymous, 2009). While the capacity to acclimate to novel environments has been well documented in thousands of species, researchers still know very little about how and why organisms acclimate the way that they do. However, information about the acclimatization of ferns is scanty. The ferns, which are acclimatized at Pune conditions, were studied further for the characters like rhizome sprouting time., plant height, plant spread, vegetative growth period up to formation of sori (days required for sori formation), reproductive period (time from sori formation to sori maturation) and rhizome dormant duration (days) All above characters were studied from the selected ferns from Mahabaleshwar forest (habitats initially marked for the collection of rhizomes) as well as ferns acclimatized under Pune conditions. The acclimatized ferns have been successfully maintained in the house garden

Pteriophytes, acclimatization, conservation, Ayurvedic, Cheilanthes farinosa Kaulf, Adiuntum capillus- veneris Linn Pteriophytes, acclimatization, conservation, medicinal uses

"Ecological study and acclimatization of medicinal ferns ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 5, page no.145-149, May - 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRCP06026.pdf

"Ecological study and acclimatization of medicinal ferns ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 5, page no. pp145-149, May - 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRCP06026.pdf