screening of eleven festuca arundinaceanative populations for nacl tolerance in order to use in green space

In the turfgrass industry, the need for salinity tolerant turfgrasses isincreasing because of the increased use of saline and non-potable water.greenhouse container experiments were conducted to determine the relativesalinity tolerance and growth responses of eleven native populations of tallfescue (festuca arundinacea schrub) (tf), including: semirom, mashhad,sanandaj, yasuj, yazd abad, daran, kamyaran, gandoman, borujen, nasirabad and alborz to 8 weeks of salinity stress. also, commercial tf was usedas control. four salinity levels of irrigation water (0, 45, 90, 135 mm nacl)were applied to turfgrasses. results showed shoot and root dry weight, totalleaf area, leaf length, leaf width and leaf firing percentage was significantlyaffected by salinity for all turfgrasses. the lowest leaf firing percentage at 90and 135 mm, was related to sanandaj population and commercial tf, andthe highest leaf firing percentage was related to alborz at 45 mm andgandoman population at 90 and 135 mm. shoot dry weight, total leaf areaand leaf length of sanandaj population was less affected by salinity comparedto other populations. based on data on growth parameters, the salinitytolerance ranking of selected populations was: sanandaj > daran > yasuj > kamyaran > nasir abad > semirom > mashhad > alborz > yazd abad > borujen > gandoman . these results showed the potential and competetive role of tfnative populations compared to commercial tf.