Forage Options

Project Background

Growing salt and waterlogging tolerant forage species is one solution to maintaining agricultural production in salt affected soils or where saline water is used for irrigation. However, most commercially available forage species are sensitive to salinity and waterlogging, so there is a definite need to identify plant species for saline areas that will provide both agricultural production and groundcover. This study is a national project funded by the CRC Plant Based Management of Dryland Salinity (external link). A principal objective has been to acquire and systematically evaluate the salt and waterlogging tolerance of a wide range of native and introduced species covering grasses, legumes, herbs and shrubs. This project is composed of glasshouse, laboratory and field research. Priority species are initially evaluated for salinity and waterlogging tolerance in the glasshouse before undergoing longer-term field evaluation at a range of saline discharge sites. The priority or target genera are listed in this table.

Plant Category	Genera
Legumes	Astragalus, Ceratoides, Glycyrrhiza, Hedysarum, Lotus, Medicago, Melilotus, Swainsona, Trifolium, Trigonella, Viminaria
Grasses	Aeluropus, Chloris, Cynodon, Dactyloctenium, Distichlis, Enteropogon, Eragrostis, Festuca, Lachnogrostis, Leptochloa, Paspalum, Pennisetum, Porteresia, Puccinellia, Saccharum, Sporobolus, Stenotaphrum, Thinopyrum, Zoysia,
Herbs	Cichorium, Plantago, Psathyrostachys
Shrubs	Acanthus, Atriplex, Chenopodium, Maireana, Minuria, Rhagodia

For legume species that are generally more salt sensitive than grasses, balansa clover (Trifolium michelianum) represents the present pasture benchmark, possessing excellent waterlogging tolerance yet lacking sufficient salt tolerance to enable it to be used successfully in areas other than those described as “slightly saline”. Identifying more salt tolerant legumes would radically improve the productivity of saline agricultural land since these species are the “drivers” of the present forage system – being providers of both nitrogen (via nitrogen fixation) and high quality forage. An associated issue with the legume research has been to ensure that priority salt tolerant species have suitable matching rhizobia.

For grass species, one aim is to identify species that have salt tolerance levels that are similar to, or greater than, tall wheat grass (Thinopyrum ponticum) and puccinellia (Puccinellia ciliata) - two salt tolerant species that are widely grown in saline areas but which do have agricultural limitations. A range of native grasses species are also being evaluated to assess their role in revegetating saline discharge sites.

This project will also advance our understanding of the ways in which some plants are able to cope with the combined stresses of salinity, waterlogging and sodicity.

Related links

• CRC Plant Based Management of Dryland Salinity website – project information page (external link)
• Published review paper with AJEA (external link)
• Salinity indicator plants link

For further information contact:

Mary-Jane Rogers
Research Scientist
PIRVic, Tatura
email: MaryJane.Rogers@dpi.vic.gov.au

Page Top