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AOBPreview originally published online on April 11, 2007
Annals of Botany 2008 101(2):293-299; doi:10.1093/aob/mcm047
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Effect of Temperature, Light and Salinity on Seed Germination and Radicle Growth of the Geographically Widespread Halophyte Shrub Halocnemum strobilaceum

Xiao-Xia Qu1,2,3, Zhen-Ying Huang1,*, Jerry M. Baskin3 and Carol C. Baskin3,4,*

1 Laboratory of Quantitative Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, PR China
2 Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China
3 Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA
4 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA

* For correspondence. E-mail zhenying{at}ibcas.ac.cn or ccbask0{at}uky.edu

Received: 29 November 2006    Returned for revision: 5 January 2007    Accepted: 29 January 2007    Published electronically: 11 April 2007

Background and Aims: The small leafy succulent shrub Halocnemum strobilaceum occurs in saline habitats from northern Africa and Mediterranean Europe to western Asia, and it is a dominant species in salt deserts such as those of north-west China. The effects of temperature, light/darkness and NaCl salinity were tested on seed germination, and the effects of salinity were tested on seed germination recovery, radicle growth and radicle elongation recovery, using seeds from north-west China; the results were compared with those previously reported on this species from ‘salt steppes’ in the Mediterranean region of Spain.

Methods: Seed germination was tested over a range of temperatures in light and in darkness and over a range of salinities at 25 °C in the light. Seeds that did not germinate in the NaCl solutions were tested for germination in deionized water. Seeds from which radicles had barely emerged in deionized water were transferred to NaCl solutions for 10 d and then back to deionized water for 10 d to test for radicle growth and recovery.

Key Results: Seeds germinated to higher percentages in light than in darkness and at high than at low temperatures. Germination percentages decreased with an increase in salinity from 0·1 to 0·75 M NaCl. Seeds that did not germinate in NaCl solutions did so after transfer to deionized water. Radicle elongation was increased by low salinity, and then it decreased with an increase in salinity, being completely inhibited by ≥2·0 M NaCl. Elongation of radicles from salt solutions <3·0 M resumed after seedlings were transferred to deionized water.

Conclusions: The seed and early seedling growth stages of the life cycle of H. strobilaceum are very salt tolerant, and their physiological responses differ somewhat between the Mediterranean ‘salt steppe’ of Spain and the inland cold salt desert of north-west China.

Key words: Halocnemum strobilaceum, halophyte, inland salt desert, radicle growth, radicle growth recovery, seed germination, seed germination recovery


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