Short Communication:    Priming effects of salicylic acid and ascorbic acid on seed germination of white clover (Trifolium repens) and red clover (Trifolium pretense) under salinity stress

Vahdati Mashhadian, Navid; Tehranifar, Ali; Selahvarzi, Yahya; Tabasi, Atefeh

doi:10.22077/escs.2015.209

Short Communication: Priming effects of salicylic acid and ascorbic acid on seed germination of white clover (Trifolium repens) and red clover (Trifolium pretense) under salinity stress

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Navid Vahdati Mashhadian ¹

Ali Tehranifar ²

Yahya Selahvarzi ³

Atefeh Tabasi ⁴

¹ PhD student of ornamental plants, Horticulture department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

² Professor of Horticulture department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

³ Lecturer of Horticulture department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

⁴ MSc. Horticulture department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

10.22077/escs.2015.209

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find out the effects of salinity stress along with salicylic and ascorbic acid priming (as alleviators) on seed germination of Trifolium repens and Trifolium pratense (native) and Trifolium pratense cv. Marino using a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with 4 levels of salinity stress (0, 100, 150 and 200 mM) and 5 levels of alleviators (0, 100 and 200 ppm of each) with 3 replicates. Results showed that salinity stress, interaction between salinity and alleviator and 3 way interactions had significant effects on measured traits (P≤0.01). The greatest and lowest values measured for different traits in this experiment were observed in the control and high salinity treatments, respectively. Germination percentage at the highest levels of salinity (200 mM) in T. repens, T. pratense (native) and T. pratense cv. Marino were reduced by 90, 77 and 78% compared to the control, respectively. 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 disrupts germination, it is possible to improve germination percentage and rate of clover seeds under salinity stress through using alleviators.

Keywords

Alleviators

Cover crops

Environmental stress

Germination percentage

Native plants