From Sprouting to Senescence: Phenological Chronicles of Phytolacca acinosa Roxb. in the Himalayan Highlands

In the era of the Anthropocene, changes in the timing of plant life cycle events serve as prominent biological markers of global environmental shifts. Major of the studies dedicated to documenting and analyzing plant phenological changes are from North America and Europe. Although few studies are available from Himalayan regions, but there is a notable scarcity of comparable studies in the developing world, particularly in regions like the Himalaya. To fill this knowledge gap, the present study aims to attempt the reveal to attempt to unravel the vegetative and reproductive phenology of Phytolacca acinosa across Kashmir Himalaya. For this, we selected and tagged 10 healthy individuals for monitoring and documenting the onset and duration of different phenological events from sprouting to senescence. Further, flowering phenology was recorded using flowering variables such as moment, intensity and duration. Our results reveal that Phytolacca acinosa completes the entire life cycle within a period 7–8 months, and the timing of phenophases varied significantly across the selected sites. Our results also reveal that the plant populations at lower elevations exhibited a clear precedence of vegetative and reproductive phases in their life cycle as compared to those growing at higher elevations. We found that all the phenophases except senescence showed an overlap with the preceding phase. We also found that the flowering variables showed significant variation across the selected sites with the maximum values at low elevations, while minimum values at high elevations. Our study is the first attempt that provides useful insights into the phenology of P. acinosa across different habits along an elevation gradient in Kashmir Himalaya. Phenological adjustments, such as advancing or delaying reproductive phases, are crucial strategies for species to optimize reproductive success. Global climate change, characterized by rapid warming and disruptions, particularly during reproductive periods, has notably impacted species at higher elevations. Understanding phenological attributes is vital in contemporary conservation biology and the phenological data from this study will assist in formulating effective strategies for the restoration and conservation of the target species.