Globally there is an increasing interest in growing ornamental plants as high value agricultural industries worldwide including Jordan. Soil salinity has significant constraints limiting growth and development of plants including ornamentals. The Easter lily, Lilium longiflorum Thunb. (Liliaceae) is a major ornamental plant in Jordan with different irrigation needs. Experiments were set up under greenhouse conditions at the School of Agriculture, the University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan during the 2019/2021 growing seasons to investigate the effect of different salinity levels and two growing media (soil and zeolitic tuff) on some quantity and quality characteristics of L. longiflorum. Results indicated that both salinity level and growing media have a significant impact on the plant characteristics (height, fresh and dry weights of the plant; dry weight, length, diameter and chlorophyll of inflorescence, stomata resistance and leaf greenness). Generally, the findings showed that increasing salinity level causes a significant reduction in most L. longiflorum characters tested. Furthermore, increased salinity level resulted in an increase in mineral concentrations in plant tissues. In addition, L. longiflorum grown in zeolitic tuff had better quantity and quality characteristics than those grown in soil. In conclusions, salinity influences almost all aspects of plant quantity and quality characteristics tested.

Keywords: Lilium longiflorum, salt stress ,zeolitic tuff, minerals, ornamental plants, Jordan