The information about the forage quality of rangeland species is essential to supply a reasonable diet to livestock and determine thestocking rate and grazing time on rangelands. Salsola turcomanica is one of the important species of semi-arid rangelands in the Western part of Golestan province, Iran. The present study was conducted to provide information about the nutritive value of S.turcomanica at different growth stages in 2019. Plant samples (with three replications) were randomly collected in four growth stages (vegetative stage, early flowering, late flowering and seed maturity) from Gomishan rangelands during the summer and autumn 2019. Seven quality indices, including Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF), Crude Protein (CP), Dry Matter Digestibility (DMD), Metabolizable Energy (ME), Digestible Energy (DE), Total Digestible Nutrient (TDN) and Ash content (Ash) were analyzed. Data analysis was performed using One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) method and mean comparisons were done by Duncan test. The results demonstrated that there are significant differences among phenological stages for all the traits (p <0.05). The results demonstrated that the content of CP (from 25.66% to 8.33%), DMD (from 84.45% to 56.31%), ME (from 12.35 to 7.57 MJ/Kg), Ash (from 40.03% to 35.60 %), DE (from 36.17 to 24.12 Mcal/Kg) and TDN (from 82.55% to 53.41%) were decreased by the progress of growth stages. Regarding its growth seasons and high values of CP, ME and DMD in all phenological stages, it is suggested that this species can have aprominent place in the grazing livestock diet in semi-arid rangelands. Manuscript profile

Salsola turcomanica (Litv) is a widespread wild plant species in Middle Eastern arid and semi-arid areas and is a relatively palatable halophyte species that has low establishment rate in the field. In winter 2017, in order to optimize the germination indices, its seeds were treated by scarification, stratification, scarification after stratification, gibberellic acid, potassium nitrate and hot water. Then, in separate trials, the effects of six levels of drought stress (0, -2, -4, -6, -8, -10 Bar) and salinity (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 ds/m) were assessed under laboratory conditions as well as the effect of four sowing depths (0, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 cm) investigated on seedling emergence under greenhouse conditions. All four experiments were carried out using completely randomized designs with four replications. A significant decrease was observed in the seed germination indices by increasing drought and salinity stress levels (p<0.05). This species had moderate to low germination percent under -2 bar drought stress and 15 ds/m salinity. Based on the obtained result, the scarification was the best treatment of seed germination, so the seeds of S. turcomanica were scarificated and sown (100 kg/ha) in the field at the end of autumn 2018. According to the results, the highest seed emergence was observed at the shallow depth sowing and resulted in 28.7% vegetation cover and 176.44 (g/m2) dry matter production at the end of growing season. So, it was concluded that for dry land farming system, cultivation of this species in winter rangelands can reduce wind erosion during its growth period in summer and provide a considerable quantity of forage. Based on the results of this research, cultivation of this species can be recommended to rangeland improvement or ley-farming projects. Manuscript profile