Karyotypes and Chromosome Morphology in the Genus Salvia Linn

Abstract

Works on the chromosomes of the genus Salvia in relation to karyotypes and chromosome morphology are very little. Whatever has been done is limited to chromosome counts only. Many authors (Sheel 1931, Yakovleva 1933, Stewart 1939, Felfoldy 1947, Delestaing 1954, Epling et al. 1962, Raman and Kesavin 1963, Faverger and Huynh 1965, Gadella et al. 1966, Harvey 1966, Lee 1967, Mehra and Gill 1968b, Bjorkqvist et al. 1969, Afzal 1971, 1972; Von Bothmer 1970, Sz. Borsos 1971, Chuksanova and Kaplanbekova 1971, Bhattacharya et al. 1971, Van Loon et al. 1971, Gill 1971, Markova and Ivanova 1971, 1974; Bhat et al. 1972, Markova and Thi Thu 1974, Vij and Kashyap 1976) have mentioned the chromosome numbers of different species of Salvia. However, no detailed work on the karyotype of any species is available. This may be due to the very small size of the chromosomes. In some species they are too small to be seen clearly (Wu and Hunag 1975). Owing to their very small size it is very difficult to distinguish the different pairs of chromosomes, especially when a large number is present, as not even the centromeres are discernible (Hruby 1948). Present paper deals with a greater detail the karyotypic studies, as well as studies on the morphology of the chromosomes of the genus Salvia as a whole. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the inter-specific relationships as well as evolution among them. © 1980, Japan Mendel Society, International Society of Cytology. All rights reserved.