Attempts were made during present investigation to study effect of salinity on growth of Crotalaria juncea, C.juncea var. K-12 yellow, C. retusa, and C. verrucosa, using the technique of sand culture. Various growth parameters, such as shoot length, root length, number of leaves, leaf area, fresh weight, dry weight, leaf thickness, leaf succulence, relative water content (RWC) and 100 seed weight were found to be affected due to salinity. Increase in leaf thickness and leaf succulence due to salinity was observed. The study revealed that higher salt concentrations lead to the reduction in plant height in Crotalaria species, except in C. verrucosa, wherein, shoot length was increased at 100 mM NaCl salinity.
Salt stress, Growth, Crotalaria species, Relative water content RWC, Leaf succulence
