the evaluation of morphological variation and essential oil content of salvia species ecotypes in south-west of iran

salvia is a valuable medicinal and aromatic genus belongs to the lamiaceae family. in this study, morphological traits and essential oil content were used for the estimate of variability and to determine the relationship among different species of salvia including s. syriaca (5 ecotypes), s. virgate (8 ecotypes), s. reuterana (6 ecotypes) and s. multicaulis (6 ecotypes) collected from the south-west of iran. to determine the essential oil content, samples were taken at the full flowering stage and essential oil was measured using a clevenger apparatus. variance analysis of ecotypes showed that plant height and sepal length were not significant in s. multicaulis species. style length, diameter and length of the receptacle in the s. reuterana, s. syriaca and s. virgata species didn’t show significant differences. the highest amount of essential oil was obtained in the s. multicaulis among m2, m1 and m3 ecotypes. ecotype r3 had the highest amount of essential oil among s. reuterana ecotypes. the highest amount of essential oil in s. syriaca was observed in s5, s3 and s4 ecotypes. v1 and v8 had the highest amount of eesential oil within s. virgata ecotypes. based on the cluster analysis of the species, they were grouped into four clusters. s. multicaulis ecotypes were placed in a separate group. s. reuterana, s. syriaca and s. virgata ecotypes distributed in the three other groups. based on the cluster analysis, ecotypes s. syriaca and s. virgate set in one group and s. reuterana and s. multicaulisin were separated. the results of correlation analysis in four species indicated that essential oil content had significantly a negative correlation with plant length, leaf length and petal length and significantly positive correlation with diameter receptacle length and width. according to the results of this study it can be concluded that ecotypes with larg receptacle and high essential oil content are suitable for breeding and domestication of these species.