Evaluation of Some Germination Factors of Salvia sahendica Boiss & Buhse in Drought and Salt Stresses Conditions

Salvia genus has 58 annual and perennial herbaceous species in Iran that 17 species are endemic and Salvia sahendica Boiss & Buhse is one of them. In order to investigate the effects of drought stress caused by PEG 6000 and salinity stress induced by NaCl on germination factors of Salvia sahendica, two experiments were carried out based on a completely randomized design with 3 replications. In the first experiment, the effects of drought levels (0 as control, -2, -4, -6, -8 and -10 bar) and in the second one, the effects of salinity levels (0 as control, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 mMol) on percentage and rate of germination, vigor index, radicle and plumule length were studied. According to the results, different levels of drought and salt stress had significant effects on all measured characteristics. In drought stress test, the highest and lowest percentage of germination was observed in -2 and -10 bar (respectively, 60.11 and 41.55 %) and highest vigor index was measured in -4 bar (62.07). Study of salinity stress test showed that the highest and lowest percentage of germination was in 50 and 250 mM treatments (55.61 and 12.43 %, respectively) and highest vigor index was observed in control (54.07). Radicle length was affected less than plumule length in these stress conditions. It seems that S.sahendica is well tolerance to drought and salt stress in germination stage