Establishment of seedlings at early growth stages of plants as one of the most important determinants of high yield is severely affected by soil salinity. Therefore, high germination rate and vigorous early growth under salty soils is preferred. In order to examine the impact of different salinity stress levels on germination characteristics and preliminary growth on fleawort (Plantago ovata L.) and purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea L.), a laboratory experiment was conducted based on completely randomized design with four replications at the College of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during 2012. Salinity levels included zero, 5, 10 and 15 dS.m-1 NaCl. The results indicated that the effects of different drought stress levels was significant (p≤0.01) on germination rate (GR), final germination, plumule and radicle lengths and seed vigor index (SVI) of fleawort and purple coneflower. By increasing in salinity stress from zero to 15 dS.m-1 decreased GR from 99 to 35 1/days in fleawort and from 88 to 22 1/days in purple coneflower. These decreasing amounts for SIV were up to 100% to control for fleawort and purple coneflower. So, it concluded that salinity stress decreased germination characteristics and preliminary growth of fleawort and purple coneflower due to disordering in hydrolysis and enzymathic processes. Also, comparing the effect of salinity stress on germination characteristics of these two species denoted that purple coneflower is a sensitive species to salinity stress than fleawort.

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