Salinity tolerance of wild barley Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum

The wild barley accumulated much less Na in the leaf and root tissues in comparison with the cultivated ones. Therefore, the results showed that H. spontaneum is a kind of ion (Na) excluder species and that the six salinity‐tolerant genotypes are the superior salt excluders among the 47 wild barley genotypes. Given the homologous nature of the two subspecies, improvement of ion exclusion (Na) or K/Na selectivity using H. spontaneum germplasm is a more rigorous and practical approach than using other wild Hordeum species (i.e. halophyte H. marinum) for the introgression of salinity tolerance into the cultivated barley.