XVI International Botanical Congess

Experimental approaches for alleviating the salinity under arid and semi arid ecosystems by growing desert halophytes are of recent commencement. An experiment was, therefore, conducted under simulated field salinity condition to study the field performance and dry matter production of four plant species viz. Atriplex nummularia Lindl., Haloxylon recurvum (Moq) Bunge ex Boiss, Salsola baryosma (R&S) Dandy and Suaeda nudiflora Moq. Plants were grown in the field and periodical observations on various morpholphysiological parameters were recorded. It was observed that the field performance of Salsola was better than other species under salinity. This species produced highest plant biomass (590.723 g/plant) followed by Atriplex (532.102 g/plant), Suaeda (196.106 g/plant) and Haloxylon (052.102 g/plant). Similar trend of results was also indicated by data on plant height, branches/plant, total leaf area/plant and osmotic potential of leaf cell sap. The salt scavenging potentialities of these species were also indicated by analysing the data on soil characteristics of the field. Prospects of utilization of such information for phytoremediation of soil salinity have been discussed.