Abstract: 【OBJECTIVE】In order to elucidated the mechanism on tolerance to saline-alkali stress and develop a method to identify the rice varieties under saline-alkali stress in Jiangsu Province, 【METHOD】 The main growth characteristics of 18 rice varieties such as plant height, livability at bud stage,dry weight of seedling,length of stem ,length of root and the number of lateral root, et al. were studied under saline-alkali stress (pH 9.8);【RESULTS】 The results indicated that the heavier saline-alkali stress was, the more rice bud livability,plant height dropped. As compared with japonica rice plant, indica rice plants were sensitive to saline-alkali stress,exhibiting lower bud livability ,lighter dry weight of plant,smaller height of main root and less number of lateral root. While the saline-alkali tolerance of the hybrid rice exhibited a bit different among the varieties. Hybrid Shanyou 63 and Liangyoupeijiu were tolerant to saline-alkali at middle degree, lying between japonica and indica while that of hybrid Yueyou 938 was similar to indica rice plant;【CONCLUSION】Bud livability and the number of lateral root between Ck and saline-alkali were significant at 0.01 and 0.05 level ,respectively, which can be the important indexes identifying to saline-alkali stress at seedling stage of rice.