Short Communication: Effect of salt stress on germination factors of four cultivars of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of salt stress on germination characteristics of four cultivars of chamomile. A factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with two factors in three replications was conducted in Research Laboratory of Department of Horticulture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during 2008. The first factor included 5 salinity levels (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 mM) that induced with NaCl and second factor included 4 cultivars of chamomile: Bona (diploid), Germania (diploid), Goral (tetraploid) and Lutea (tetraploid). According to the results, different levels of salt stress and cultivar had significant effect on measured characteristics. Results showed that all the measured characteristics were decreased significantly due to salinity stress. Goral cultivar had a significant dominance to all other cultivars in 50, 100 and 150 mM, NaCl treatments and its germination rate was 36.03 and 23.3 percent, at 100 and 150 mM respectively. Plumule length decreased more than radicle length in salt stress. Different cultivars of chamomile with diversity in genotype have different responses to salt stress. It seems that Goral cultivar showed the highest salinity tolerance in germination stage within studied cultivars.