Romanzoffia tracyi Plants having well-developed tubers at the roots, and propagating by these tubers; a compact plant with flowers scarcely above the leaves, natural habitat on rocks along the coast where wetted by sea spray in winter. Mistmaidens (Romanzoffia) I have about a dozen Romanzoffia tracyi that germinated this spring. Now I wonder how to grow them successfully in an area that is not within the sea-spray zone on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I’d like to know -- 1. whether salt is necessary for R. tracyi to survive and 2. if it is, how could I provide it?
My guess would be the plant tolerates salt in its natural environment but does not need it to survive. It probably benefits more from the moisture of the ocean spray than the salt. Lacking a response here, you could perform an experiment where one group of plants would receive a daily misting with water from the ocean. Reference: Romanzoffia tracyi : Mist maidens–The Race Rocks Taxonomy | Race Rocks Ecological Reserve-
The salt is most likely important for keeping competing plants at bay; as Junglekeeper says, it tolerates salt rather than requires it. In the absence of salt, it'll soon be out-competed by other plants.
If you choose to carry out an experiment, you'll need three test groups: Misted with rain water; misted with ocean water; unmisted as control.
