The influence of Ca 2+ salts on the resistance of red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) seedlings to salinity was investigated. Red-osier dogwood seedlings were exposed to 5 and 10 mM of CaCl 2 or CaSO 4 in the presence or absence of 50 mM NaCl for 40 days in a controlled environment. Seedlings exposed to CaCl 2 and CaSO 4 recovered from NaClinduced transpiration reduction after 20 days at a concentration of 10 mM and after 30 days at a concentration of 5 mM; while in absence of additional Ca 2+ , the seedlings recovered only after 40 days. Addition of 10 mM Ca 2+ to NaCl treatment also limited the accumulation of proline in leaf tissues and caused an increase in leaf and lateral shoot K + content. These results suggest that 10 mM Ca 2+ could alleviate, at least in part, the osmotic effect of NaCl on red-osier dogwood via control of stomatal closure. On the other hand, ion analysis showed that Ca 2+ addition was able to reduce the NaCl-induced Na + concentration only in stem tissues suggesting that Ca 2+ had only a limited effect on the ionic stress. The present study also showed an unexpected NaCl-induced increase in Ca 2+ content of leaves, lateral shoots and stems that was not observed in our previous hydroponics experiments and seems to be more characteristic of plants growing on sandy soils.