Assessment of new forage sources in saline areas of Iran

Halophytes, as integral parts of many marine, coastal and terrestrial ecosystems, can play an important future role for biosaline agriculture, forage production and habitat restoration. There is currently a lack of public awareness and scientific documentation regarding nutritive value of halophytes. The aim of this research was to determine nutritive value of native halophytes of Iran. Seven saline indicator species of Iran including Halocnemum strobilaceum, Halostachys caspica, Seidlitzia rosmarinus, Salicornia herbacea, Alhagi persarum, Salsola regida and Atriplex leucoclada were sampled at three phenological stages (vegetative, flowering and seed ripening). Then, the plants were powdered and six quality traits, Crude Protein (CP), Acid detergent fiber (ADF), Moisture, Metabolizable Energy (ME), Ash and Dry mater digestibility (DMD) were determined. ANOVA results revealed that there were significant differences among all species and phenological stages. ME, DMD and CP decreased in all the species in three stages, but ADF changed significantly in seed ripening stages in H. strabilaceum (20.63), S. rosmarinus (17.61 %) and H. caspica (17.4 %). The difference was not significant in flowering (32.56%) and seed ripening (31.66 %) stages for A. persarum. Increasing of ash and moisture content in flowering stage in succulent halophytes helps them to tolerate salinity. Due to less fiber and more CP, ME and DMD, S. regida has the highest nutritive value and A. leucoclada has the lowest value. Also, late vegetative or early flowering stages are the best time of forage quality according to these traits.