Assessment of Salt Tolerance Ability among Different Accessions of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Abstract

Twenty sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) accessions were evaluated against three different salinity levels. Triplicate factorial completely randomized design was followed. Salinity was developed with NaCl to achieve the final salinity levels of 3dSm^-1, 6dSm^-1 and 9dSm^-1, whereas control contained tap water. Data of 60 days old ten seedlings from each entry was recorded and analyzed. Accessions G-36, G-61, A-23, A-6, and A-185 performed better in both controlled and saline conditions. These accessions showed better biomass production and high shoot and root growth by least concentration of Na⁺ and higher concentration of K⁺ and Cl^- in leaf sap resulting in better K⁺ and Na⁺.

Keywords: Halianthus annus, salinity, biomass, leaf sap