Responses to salt stress of 16 Eucalyptus species, Grevillea robusta, Lophostemon confertus and Pinus caribea var. hondurensis

Abstract

Sixteen Eucalyptus species, Grevillea robusta, Lophostemon confertus and Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis were subjected to five saline solution treatment in a glasshouse experiment. The salt tolerance and morphological responses including plant height; leaf length, width, thickness, and number of leaves of each species were examined. Salt tolerances of the species varied greatly. Species performance in both survival and growth also changed considerably at different salinity levels. Of all the species studied. Eucalyptus drepanophylla, Eucalyptus argophloia, Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Eucalyptus robusta were most tolerant to salt while Eucalyptus cloeziana and Eucalyptus pilularis were least tolerant. The responses of plant leaf number and height to salinity were indicative of tolerance height growth when subjected to salinity appeared likely to be more tolerant to salt. © 1993.