Bigtooth Maples from Three Geographically Different Origins Endure Root Zone Salinity
The contiguous geographic range of bigtooth maple (Acer grandidentatum Nutt.) covers Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas and suggests that this deciduous tree is a potential landscape plant for many regions. Using bigtooth maples selected from provenances in New Mexico (NM), Utah (UT) and Texas (TX), we evaluated physiological and growth traits of plants subjected to root zone salinity treatments at concentrations 0 (control), 2.5, 5.0 or 10.0 dS·m−1 (0, 1,600, 3,200, or 6,400 ppm). At harvest, foliar Kjeldahl nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and calcium concentrations of salinity-treated plants were not different from control plants. Plants from the TX provenance had the highest leaf dry weight (DW) (15.7 g [0.55 oz]), larger stem diameter (11.4 mm [0.45 in]), less foliar injury, and less negative midday stem water potentials while accumulating three and two times more foliar sodium than plants from the UT and NM provenance plants, respectively. Total DW (95.9 g [3.4 oz]) of TX plants was triple that of the other two provenances. While bigtooth maples from the three provenances tolerated salinity, those from the TX provenance show enhanced resiliency to root zone salinity.