Seawater Salinity Effect on Seed Germination and Seedling Early Growth of Three Ornamental Species

In order to study the salt tolerance of three species, Coreopsis grandiflora, Celosia cristata and Matthiola incana in germination stage, an experiment was carried out based on a completely randomized design with three replications in Hormozgan University laboratory in 2015. Salinity levels, including 3, 6, 9, and 12 dS/m were applied by dilution seawater and distilled water used as control. In this research some seed germination indices such as germination percentage, germination rate and mean germination time, length, fresh and dry weight of seedling, seed vigor germination, were measured. Germination percentage, germination rate, seed vigor and dry weight of Coreopsis grandiflora seedling, were significantly different compared with control. In Celosia cristata, germination percent, seed vigor germination and seedling length didn’t show significant difference until 9 dS/m salinity. In more characters, significant increasing were seen with increasing salinity (9 dS/m). Germination percentage were decreased in comparisons with control (24.6%). In additional, fresh and dry weight of seedling didn’t show significant difference. The effect of salinity on seed germination of Matthiola incana in different level of salinity was not significant. Although seed germination decreases gradually by salinity. In general, according to the observed results, Coreopsis grandiflora and Celosia cristata showed more tolerance to salt in comparison with Matthiola incana.