Salvia sect. Brandegeia Epling (1939: 314)

González-Gallegos, Jesús Guadalupe, Castro-Castro, Arturo & Ávila-González, Heriberto, 2020, Salvia rhizomatosa (Lamiaceae) a new species from Sierra Madre Occidental in Durango, Mexico, with a synopsis of Salvia sect. Brandegeia, Phytotaxa 434 (3), pp. 255-269 : 256

Salvia sect. Brandegeia Epling (1939: 314) . Type: Salvia angustiarum Epling (1939: 315) .

Perennial herbs with several stems, decumbent, or small shrubs, frequently covered with extended long hairs (except S. oresbia ). Leaves sessile or petiolate; leaf blade ovate, deltoid-ovate, [elliptic, ovate-elliptic, lanceolate, lanceolate-ovate, ovate-lanceolate, to orbicular,] essentially glabrous except by the midvein and the margin, this usually ciliated. Inflorescences in racemes, each floral node 2–6[(–8)]-flowered. Floral bracts deciduous or persistent. Calyx mostly glabrous except by the veins which are ciliated, upper lip 5–7-veined. Corolla tube ventricose, invaginated towards the base [(except S. rhizomatosa )], [naked inside or ornate with a couple of folds just above the invagination]; lower corolla lip conspicuously longer than the upper one. Style dorsally and ventrally pilose. Gynobase longer than the mericarps.

Salvia sect. Brandegeia is integrated by 5 species including the one here described. All these are endemic to Mexico, growing in the north and central portion of the country between 20–24º in latitude, just in the northern slope of the Mexican Transition Zone ( Figure 1 ). It is not clear if this section is a monophyletic group. In the phylogenetic study of Jenks et al. (2013), Salvia angustiarum , S. blepharophylla and S. sharpii were analyzed; the first was recovered in a large polytomy, whereas the samples of the other two were grouped in a clade nested into the same polytomy than S. angustiarum . In other two phylogenetic analyses, S. buchananii was also included ( Fragoso-Martínez et al. 2018, Kriebel et al. 2019); in both S. blepharophylla and S. sharpii were recovered in a clade, which in turn is sister to S. angustiarum , whereas, S. buchananii appears in a basal position of the clade including the former species and 13 more belonging to 11 different sections. However, the representation of the diversity of the different sections in subgenus Calosphace is still limiting, hence, it is necessary to increase the sampling of species, including S. oresbia and S. rhizomatosa .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Distribution of Salvia angustiarum (triangles), S. blepharophylla (diamonds), S. buchananii (squares), S. oresbia (asterisks) and Salvia rhizomatosa (stars).