Festuca rubra is a perennial grass used widely as fodder in Southwest China. It has particularly strong tolerance to heavy metal toxic. Some experiments have revealed that it can withstand very high concentrations(500μg·g -1 ) of cadmium(Cd) and medium-high concentrations (100 μg·g -1 ) of copper (Cu). Festuca absorbs both Cd and Cu in a bi-phasic pattern. It makes Festuca very useful in the environmental and ecological engineering in removing heavy metal toxic and organic wastes. So, it would be necessary to study its physiology of salt tolerance and find the adapted range to NaCl.This is a preliminary report on salt tolerance of Festuca in sawdust culture. NaCl solution treatment concentrations were divided into 3 groups: 0 5%, 1%, 1 5%. After treatments for two weeks, we measured the amount of the chlorophyll, the soluble sugar content and the calorific values in the species. In this experiment, we used the emergy analysis method and found that the adapted range to NaCl was 0～1%, with optimum about 1%, with lethal threshold above 1 5%.
