Salt Tolerance in the Halophyte Suaeda maritima L. Dum.—the Effect of Oxygen Supply and Culture Medium on Growth

Suaeda maritima is an annual species that grows in salt marshes and tolerates not only salt but also flooding, although plants are smaller at lower than at higher elevations of salt marshes. We investigated whether adventitious roots play a role in tolerance to flooding and how flooding affects ion accumulation in the shoots, a determinant of growth in this species. We examined the response of plants grown in Stout and Arnon culture solution to different periods of flooding at different salinities and verified our results with plants grown in other culture solutions (Hoagland and Yoshida). We measured growth, photosynthesis and estimated stomatal frequency as well as the accumulation of Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and K+: plants grew and photosynthesised optimally in 200-mM Na+ (in Stout and Arnon solution), but the optimal concentration for growth increased to 450 mM when in Yoshida solution. Flooding always decreased growth, but had little effect on Na+ concentrations. Although plants produced adventitious roots, their mass decreased rather than increased with flooding. The decrease in production of adventitious roots under flooded conditions suggested that they were not important in the tolerance of this species to submergence—an unusual response compared with the general response of flooding-tolerant plants.