Salvia (Lamiaceae) is not monophyletic: implications for the systematics, radiation, and ecological specializations of Salvia and tribe Mentheae

Abstract

Salvia, with over 900 species from both the Old and New World, is the largest genus in the Lamiaceae. Unlike most members of the subfamily Nepetoideae to which it belongs, only two stamens are expressed in Salvia. Although the structure of these stamens is remarkably variable across the genus, generally each stamen has an elongate connective and divergent anther thecae, which form a lever mechanism important in pollination. In a preliminary investigation of infrageneric relationships within Salvia, the monophyly of the genus and its relationship to other members of the tribe Mentheae were investigated using the chloroplast DNA regions rbcL and trnL-F. Significant conclusions drawn from the data include: Salvia is not monophyletic, Rosmarinus and Perovskia together are sister to an Old World clade of Salvia, the section Audibertia is sister to subgenus Calosphace or the monotypic Asian genus Dorystaechas, and the New World members of section Heterosphace are sister to section Salviastrum. Owing to the non-monophyly of Salvia, relationships at the next clearly monophyletic level, tribe Mentheae, were investigated.

A Search for Phylogenetically Informative Pollen Characters in the Subtribe Salviinae (Mentheae: Lamiaceae)

“…A). These species of Salvia were carefully chosen based on previously recognized infrageneric groups and geographic ranges (Walker et al 2004). …”

“…2A-2F). These genera are sister to all the other genera in Salviinae on the basis of stamen features and molecular data (Epling 1948;Walker et al 2004;Walker and Sytsma 2007). The close relationship between the two genera and their basal position in the subtribe are corroborated by the shared presence of perforated sexine ( fig.…”

“…We selected 32 taxa for which both morphological and rbcL molecular data (1246 characters from GenBank; Walker et al 2004) were available. Parsimony analyses were performed using PAUP*, version 4.0b10 (Swofford 2002).…”

“…The evolution of the stamen connective and unique lever mechanism has occurred parallel in the Old World and the New World (Claßen-Bockhoff et al 2004;Walker and Sytsma 2007). The demonstration of the nonmonophyletic origin of Salvia based on molecular data (Walker et al 2004;Walker and Sytsma 2007) has led to the reinvestigation of morphological characters in Salvia and closely related genera in the subtribe Salviinae.…”

ESSENTIAL AND FIXED OIL CHEMICAL COMPOSITIONS OF THE SEEDS FROM THE ENDEMIC SPECIES Salvia Sharifii RECH. F. & ESFAND

“…and Eastern Asia (90 spp.) [1]. Iran, particularly, is one of the centers of origin of the genus Salvia with 67 species, here called with the common Persian name of "Maryam-Goli" and about 53% of endemics [2].…”