Soil salinity poses a significant challenge for global agriculture and ecosystems, severely impacting plant growth and land-use efficiency. Leymus chinensis (L. chinensis) is a perennial grass with a high potential for saline soil restoration, yet little is known about whether its salt tolerance during germination aligns with that during seedling development, which are considered the most salt-sensitive stages of its life cycle. Therefore, to investigate whether there is a correlation between salt tolerance during germination and the seedling stage, we evaluated the germination, growth, and survival of 10 genotypes of (G1–G10) L. chinensis under 0, 50, 100, and 150 mM NaCl stress over 12 weeks. Key indicators, including germination traits (germination percentage, radicle length, and shoot length), plant height, and survival rate, were integrated into stage-specific Comprehensive Evaluation Values (D value) to quantify salt tolerance. Salt stress significantly suppressed germination and seedling performance, with inter-genotypic variation. For example, G3 showed only an 18.0% reduction in germination percentage and 62.5% survival rate at 150 mM NaCl, while other genotypes had a 42.0–88.0% germination loss and over 90.0% mortality. However, a correlation analysis showed a positive yet non-significant correlation between D-Germination and D-Survival. Notably, D-Plant Height was negatively correlated with both D-Germination and D-Survival, with G3 and G8 displaying contrasting stress adaptation strategies. Collectively, these results indicate that salt tolerance in L. chinensis is both stage-specific and genotype-specific and that performance at germination does not reliably predict later survival. The findings of this study provide valuable germplasm resources and a theoretical basis for forage breeding and grassland restoration. The identified genotypes, G3 and G8, can serve as important materials for research on salt tolerance mechanisms and breeding programs.
Shi et al. (2025) studied this question.