Abstract:We investigated the effects of interactions of salinity and drought on germination of brown seeds, and growth and ion accumulation of seedlings grown from brown seeds of Suaeda salsa L. from an intertidal zone and a saline inland habitat. The dryness/moist rotation had no adverse effect on germination of dry seeds pretreated in different concentrations of NaCl for either population, indicating that seeds of both populations have a high tolerance of dryness/moist rotation. The percentage of wilting seedlings irrigated with 400 mmol/L NaCl in S. salsa from the intertidal zone was higher than that of the inland population under drought conditions at the third time of irrigation, but the opposite trend was found for the percentage of recovery of seedlings after wilting seedlings were supplied with fresh water again. Ion concentrations (mainly Na+ and Cl- ) in shoots of seedlings watered with 400 mmol/L NaCl in S. salsa from a saline inland habitat were higher than those of the inland population when the experiment was terminated which indicates that seedlings of S. salsa from the saline inland habitat can accumulate more ions to decrease their osmotic potential, to ensure water uptake, compared with S. salsa from the intertidal zone. The present results indicate that seedlings of S. salsa from a saline inland habitat are more tolerant to salinity and drought interactions than the intertidal population.