A 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?
These variants are called the ‘ecotypes’. Plants show changes in morphological features in response to the altitudinal gradient.
When plants are grown under similar environmental conditions, they faces same climatic condition, stresses etc. Hence shows similarity.
But when they are grown in separate geographical area, environment offers them different abiotic factors like light, temperature, availability of water, pH of soil, climate etc. Hence all these things bring out the variations in morphology which helps the plant to adapt well according to the environmental conditions.