Phylogenetic relationships among subgenera, species, and varieties of Japanese Salvia L. (Lamiaceae).

To determine evolutionary relationships among all Japanese members of the genus Salvia (Lamiaceae), we conducted molecular phylogenetic analyses of two chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) regions (rbcL and the intergenic spacer region of trnL-trnF:trnL-trnF) and one nuclear DNA (nrDNA) region (internal transcribed spacer, ITS). In cpDNA, nrDNA, and cpDNA+nrDNA trees, we found evidence that all Japanese and two Taiwanese Salvia species are included in a clade with other Asian Salvia, and Japanese Salvia species were distributed among three subclades: (1) S. plebeia (subgenus Sclarea), (2) species belonging to subg. Salvia, and (3) species belonging to subg. Allagospadonopsis. At the specific level our findings suggest: a close relationship between S. nipponica and S. glabrescens, no support for monophyly of S. lutescens and its varieties in cpDNA, nrDNA and cpDNA+nrDNA trees, and that S. pygmaea var. simplicior may be more closely related to S. japonica than to other varieties of S. pygmaea.