Considering Iran and Azerbaijan to be origin countries in the Astara region, and in order to study the effects of salt stress on morphological and physiological characteristics, changes to eight maize cultivars were experimented on in three replications on the basis of randomized complete block design over three years. Cultivars included K3615/1, S.C704, B73, S.C302, Waxy, K3546/6, K3653/2, and Zaqatala-68, and they were cultivated in two pieces of land in Astara: one with normal soil and the other with salty soil. During the experiment, Na + accumulation in leaves, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, leaf relative water content (LRWC), proline content, biomass per plant, harvest index, and grain yield per hectare were measured. Results from the experiment showed that, between locations (normal and saline) in most traits, significant differences were seen. And between varieties in all traits, significant differences were seen. The interaction between years and varieties for all traits was not significant. Comparison traits in different salinities showed that in most traits there are significant differences between genotypes. Proline content increased with increasing soil salinity. With increasing salinity, Na + accumulation in leaves severely increased and the biggest accumulation was observed in S.C704. Maximum LRWC in B73 was measured in normal conditions. The highest amount of chlorophyll a, in normal conditions, was observed in S.C704 with 1.873 mg/g fresh weight of leaves, which was not significantly different from B73. Between chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, Na + and LRWC positive correlations were observed in non-stress conditions. Between chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, yield per plant, and yield grain, significant positive correlations were observed in salty conditions.

To evaluate the effect of salt stress and salicylic acid application on growth and physiological traits of maize varieties, an experiment was conducted in factorial split plot based on RCBD design with 3 replications in research farm of Islamic Azad University of Ardebil branch during 2012-13. Salt stress factor including three levels (control, 50mM and 100mM NaCl) and acid salicylic (control, 1mM and 2mM). Results from the experiment showed that, between different salinity between different salinity in carotenoid, chlorophyll a+b, chlorophyll content and proline were significantly different. Effect of salicylic except for stem diameter was not significant for all traits. Interactive effects of salinity in salicylic on proline was significant at the 5% level. There was no significant difference in leaf length between salinity, but salinity decreased the amount of leaf length was 100 Mm NaCl in soil. The lowest of Leaf length was observed at 100 mM salt and 2 mM salicylic acid concentration. Chlorophyll content was measured by chlorophyll meter showed that with increasing salinity, chlorophyll content also show a significant decrease. The maximum stem diameter at the concentration of 100 mM salt, and 1 mM salicylic acid was observed in 640Ns variety (26/83mm). The highest amount of carotenoids in the leaves of salt-zero (control) was observed with increasing salt were significantly lower. Between leaf length with chlorophyll content, total chlorophyll (a+b) and carotenoid was observed significant positive correlation.There was a significant positive correlation between chlorophyll content with total chlorophyll, carotenoids and stem diameter.