Data from: Taxonomic study on Japanese Salvia (Lamiaceae): Phylogenetic position of S. akiensis, and polyphyletic nature of S. lutescens var. intermedia

Both Salvia akiensis and S. lutescens (Lamiaceae) are endemic to Japan.
Salvia akiensis was recently described in 2014 in the Chugoku (= SW
Honshu) region, and each four varieties of S. lutescens distributed
allopatrically. Among varieties in S. lutescens, var. intermedia show a
disjunctive distribution in the Kanto (=E Honshu) and Kinki (= W Honshu)
regions. Recent field studies of S. lutescens var. intermedia revealed
several morphological differences between the Kanto and Kinki populations.
Here, I evaluated these differences among Salvia lutescens var. intermedia
and its allies with morphological analysis and molecular phylogenetic
analyses of nuclear ribosomal DNA (internal and external transcribed
spacer regions) and plastid DNA (ycf1-rps15 spacer, rbcL, and trnL-F)
sequences. Both morphological analysis and molecular phylogenetic analyses
showed that S. lutescens var. intermedia from the Kinki region and var.
lutescens were closely related to each other. However, var. intermedia
from the Kanto region exhibited an association with S. lutescens var.
crenata and var. stolonifera, which also grew in eastern Japan, rather
than var. intermedia in the Kinki region. These results indicated that S.
lutescens var. intermedia is not a taxon with a disjunctive distribution,
but a combination of two or more allopatric taxa. Present study also
suggested that S. akiensis was most closely related to S. omerocalyx.