Effect of salinity on germination capacity of laurel (Laurus nobilis L.)

Abstract

In Tunisia, more precisely in semi-arid and arid areas, drought accentuated by the superficial evaporation of water leads to a gradual increase in salinity, which is a limiting factor in crop production. In these highly salty ecosystems, some plants grow naturally; however, various species show different levels of tolerance to salinity during their development. The germination of the seeds is the most sensitive stage to this abiotic stress. The effect of this severe stress is little known among Laurel (Laurus nobilis L.), which is a native species of natural vegetation of the Mediterranean region, well known for its medicinal, aromatic, forestry, ornamental and culinary properties, and rare in its natural habitat, often subject to overexploitation or threatened with risk of extinction in Tunisia. The objective of this work is to study the effects of different concentrations of NaCl of irrigation water on germination behavior of laurus nobilis L. The experiment was carried out in Tunis, the experimental design was entirely randomized with four treatments: 0, 50, 100, and 150 mM NaCl and five replications of 80 seeds, for each treatments. Salt stress caused a negative effect on the germination of laurel seeds especially for the highest concentrations of salt (150 mM NaCl).