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10 June 2019 Salinity Effects on Germination of Artemisia herbaalba Asso: Important Pastoral Shrub from North African Rangelands
Bouzid Nedjimi , Hassina Zemmiri
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Abstract

Artemisia herbaalba Asso (known in Arabic as Shih) is an evergreen aromatic shrub endemic in North African rangelands with high pastoral and medicinal relevance. The present work was designed to determine the effect of four soluble salts (NaCl, Na2SO4, MgCl2, and CaCl2) on germination of A. herbaalba seeds. Four concentrations (0, 50, 10, and 150 mM) of each salt were used to test the influence of salinities on germination percentage (GP), rate of germination (RG), and germination tolerance index (GTI %). The experiment was conducted in a controlled incubator with a 12h–photoperiod under 15°C dark/25°C light. The results showed that both GP and (RG) decreased significantly with salinity, and the highest GP was observed in the distilled water control (∼ 80%). The germination tolerance index (GTI %) revealed that A. herbaalba seeds were more tolerant to CaCl2 than other soluble salts. Comparatively, at high salt concentrations, MgCl2 and Na2SO4 were generally the most toxic salts followed by NaCl and CaCl2. The germination of A. herbaalba over a wide range of soluble salts suggests that this species can establish in salt-degraded soils. Therefore, this species appears a promising candidate for the rehabilitation of rangeland with saline soils.

© 2018 The Society for Range Management. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Bouzid Nedjimi and Hassina Zemmiri "Salinity Effects on Germination of Artemisia herbaalba Asso: Important Pastoral Shrub from North African Rangelands," Rangeland Ecology and Management 72(1), 189-194, (10 June 2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2018.07.002
Received: 4 October 2017; Accepted: 2 July 2018; Published: 10 June 2019
KEYWORDS
arid rangelands
Artemisia herba–alba
Asteraceae
germination tolerance index
salt stress
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