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INTRODUCTION
Lamiaceae is a large family. Most of the species are greatly relevant, due to their economic values. Lamiaceae is represented by about 258 genera and 3500 species in the world (Duarte and Lopes, 2007). Many of such species are used as raw material in the cosmetic industry. Some species are traditionally used as medicinal plants (Baytop, 1984). The genus Salvia sp. with over 900 species is probably the most commonly found member of the family Lamiaceae, in both subtropical and temperate parts of the world (Özdemir and Senel, 1999). The two largest centres of the genus are in America and in South-West Asia. Anatolia is a major centre for Salvia in Asia (Vural and Adigüzel, 1996). Since the most recent revision of the genus, three new species have been described; the total has now reached 97 (Davis, 1982; Davis et al., 1988; Güner et al., 2000; Dönmez, 2001; Doðan, 2008). 51 of Salvia species are endemic in Turkey and endemizm rate is 52.5 (Davis, 1982; Doðan, 2008). In recent years, anatomical characters have been used in taxonomy (Agbagwa and Ndukwu, 2004; Kharazian, 2007). The structure of petiole shows differences between genera and species. Thus, useful petiole anatomic characters are determined in designated taxonomical structures of some species (Olowokudejo, 1987, Shaheen, 2007, Tepe et al., 2007; Akçin et al., 2011). Anatomical structures of the petiole are very important in family Lamiaceae (Metcalfe and Chalk, 1972). The petiols of Salvia taxa have a unique and distinctive shape in cross section.
The aim of this study was to investigate the anatomical structures and to evaluate as statistical of petioles of 17 Salvia taxa growing in Turkey (Table 1).
[Table Omitted. Please see PDF.]
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Plant samples were collected from natural populations. Taxonomic description of the plant was made according to Davis, (1982). Anatomical works were carried out on the fresh samples preserved in 70% alcohol. Paraffin method was used for preparing cross sections of the tissues (Algan, 1981). For the numerical analysis, 5 characters of the petiol were selected. This selection was based on the variations of the petiol anatomical data. Characters were coded as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the taxa were coded as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I,...