The genus Salvia encompasses about 900 species distributed world‐wide. It is characterized by the famous staminal lever mechanism of the flower which is one of the best known examples of a nototribic pollination mechanism. We hypothesize that structure and functioning of the staminal levers play a major role as key structures in speciation. To cope with the complex evolutionary processes involved, a number of different methodological approaches are needed. The present paper summarizes the literature referring to structural and functional diversity, breeding systems, systematics and evolution in Salvia.
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