Thespesia populnea is a coastal salt tolerant plant in tropical countries. Salinity tolerance was examined in T. populnea irrigated with saline water. Seeds of T. populnea were sown in lysimeter under non saline conditions. Seedlings in each lysimeter were subjected to saline water irrigation at the age of 20 days. Three lysimeters each were irrigated with nonsaline water (control, ECiw: 0.4 dS.m-1 ) and saline water prepared by dissolving different concentrations of sea salt, 0.5% (ECiw: 6.2 dS.m-1 ), 1.0% (ECiw 12.95 dS.m-1 ), 1.5% (ECiw: 18.9 dS.m-1 ) and 2.0% (ECiw: 24.76 dS.m-1 ). Vegetative growth was recorded in terms of plant height, number of leaves, fresh and dry biomass per plant. Water potential was recorded in plants grown at different level of sea salt concentrations. Experimental data shows a reduction in vegetative growth proportional to salinity of irrigation. Water potential of plants decreased all the way with the increase in salinity of irrigation water. An increase was observed in total sugar with increase in salinity of irrigation medium. Concentration of Na+ wasincreased in different plant parts with increasing salinity. The K+ concentration was not much effected at different salinity levels. In spite of proportional reduction in growth of plants under increasing salinity levels the biomass could still provide some vegetative cover over barren saline land to improve environment.
Zahida N. Gohar, Uzma Asghar, Fahmida Perveen, Razia Sultana, Rafiq Ahmad. (2018) EFFECT OF SALINE WATER IRRIGATION ON GROWTH AND WATER POTENTIAL OF THESPESIA POPULNEA (L.) SOL.EX CORREA, , Volume 15, Issue 2.
