effects of salinity and silicon application on biomass accumulation, sodium and potassium content of leaves and roots of purslane (portulaca oleracea l.)

abstract in order to study the effects of salinity and silicon application on biomass of leaves and root of purslane (portulaca oleracea l.), a greenhouse experiment was conducted at research greenhouse of ferdowsi university of mashhad using completely randomized desgin with three replications. employed two factors consisted of three levels of salinity using nacl (0.6, 11, 22 ds/m) and two levels of silicon (0.0 and 1.0 mm sodium silicate). leaves and root biomass and percentage of organic matter, k content and k/na content in leaves significantly decreased with increasing salinity, while percentage of ash matter, na content significantly increased with increasing salinity. application of silicon imposed a positive effect on preventig high accumulation of na and increased k content in leaves. based on these results, purslane can be considered as a relatively salt tolerant plant that can produce considerable biomass under salinity conditions.