Breeding salt-tolerant cultivar of a halophytic annual Suaeda altissima L. in the Caspian semidesert

Abstract

The aim of the study was to breed a salt-tolerant cultivar of annual forage halophyte Suaeda altissima L. under irrigation with 8–10 g L^–1 saline waters. The field trials took place at the Astrakhan Experimental Reclamation Station on light-chestnut soil. The breeding stock was formed of 19 samples collected from the saline soil of the Astrakhan and the Volgograd oblasts, Stavropol krai, and the Republic of Kalmykia as well as in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Promising Suaeda altissima L. specimens were selected from a collection of different ecological and geographical populations and were evaluated by their salt tolerance and forage and seed productivity. They were assessed in a competitive variety trial for a complex of biological, ecological, and commercially valuable traits. Finally, a promising specimen K-227 (the Volga region of the Astrakhan oblast) was selected, resulting in a new cultivar Zemfira enlisted into State Breeding Register. The cultivar yields 12 t ha^–1 dry mass and 8 dt ha–1 seeds under saline water irrigation in the Northwestern Caspian Region.