Short Communication: Priming Effects of Salicylic acid and Ascorbic acid on seed germination of Trifolium repens and Trifolium pratense under salt stress

The aim of this study was to find out the effects of salinity stress along with Salicylic and Ascorbic acid priming on seed germination of Trifolium repens and Trifolium pratense (native) and Trifolium pratense cv. Marino. A factorial experiment based on completely randomized design was conducted using salt stress at 4 levels (0، 100، 150 and 200 mM) and 5 levels of alleviators (0، 100 and 200 ppm of each) with 3 replicates. Results showed that salt stress، interaction between salinity and alleviator and 3 way interactions had significant effects on measured traits (P≤0. 01). Highest and lowest values measured for different traits in this experiment were in control and higher salinity treatments، respectively. Germination percentage in the highest levels of salinity (200 mM) in T. repens، T. pratense (native) and T. pratense cv. Marino were 90، 77 and 78% respectively، compared to the control and applying Ascorbic acid (200 ppm) at the same level of salinity improved germination percentage by 88، 71 and 70%، respectively. Similar results were obtained for germination rate. In general، although salinity stress markedly reduced both germination percentage and rate، but using alleviators such as، salicylic and ascorbic acid recovers undesirable effects of salt stress and increases germination percentage and germination rate significantly.