A comparative study on the two species of the genus Salvia L. sect. Aethiopis Bentham (Labiatae) from East Anatolia, Turkey

Abstract

In this paper, morphological, anatomical and ecological features of S. limbata C.A. Meyer and S. palaestina Bentham and their pollen and nutlet micromorphologies using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) are given. Morphological characteristics of stems, leaves, bracts, calyces and corollas are taxonomically discriminating characters. Their emended and expanded description, phenology and distribution map are also provided. Anatomical studies on transverse sections of roots, stems, leaves, petioles, and surface sections of leaves are presented. Anatomical characters such as size of cortex and vascular tissue, number of palisade parenchyma rows and vascular bundles are found to be important in separating the species. Both of the species are different in shape and size of their pollen grains, but they look similar in their exine sculpturing. Moreover, shape, size and ornamentation of nutlets are found to be different. They grow on clayey-loamy and loamy soils, with pH 7.56-7.93, with 0.44-2.10% of organic matter, 0.006-0.026% of total salt content, with phosphorus 4.21-21.01 ppm and potassium 87.00-445.84 ppm.