The breeding of salt tolerant plants is the key to the biological remediation of saline soil. We conducted a germination experiment of euhalophytes and recretohalophytes under 13 NaCl gradients, including the euhalophytes:Suaeda physophora Pall., Suaeda salsa (L.) Pall., Suaeda altissima (L.) Pall., Salicornia europaea L., Kalidium foliatum (Pall.) Moq. and recretohalophytes:Limonium gmelinii (Willd.) Kuntze, Limonium otolepis (Schrenk) Kuntze, Limonium aureum (L.) Hill. To investigate the responses of germination characteristics to salinity stress by determining the seed germination rate, germination potential, germination index and relative salt damage rate. The results showed that low salinity (NaCl=50 mmol/L) could promote the germination of 8 halophytes. With the increase of salinity, S. europaea, S. salsa, S. physophora, S. altissima presented stronger salt tolerance in germination, and its germination potential and germination index were higher than others. S. europaea had the highest salt tolerance, and its germination rate even reached 54.0% under 1000 mmol/L. The 8 plants could be roughly divided into aggressive and cautious germination strategies based on S-shaped growth curve and linear model. With the increase of salinity, the initial germination time and the peak time of germination were delayed in varying degrees. When salinity ≤ 200 mmol/L, the germination of S. physophora was dominant. Its germination rate was higher than that of other plants and the difference was significant. When the medium salinity was about 400 mmol/L, S. salsa and S. europaea germinate fastest, and there was no significant difference between the two. When the salinity was ≥ 600 mmol/L, the germination rate of S. europaea was faster, which was significantly different from other plants. The salt tolerance concentration and salt tolerance limit concentration of recretohalophytes were lower than euhalophytes. Our results indicated that 8 plants had the potential to be used as ecological restoration materials in saline soil areas dominated by chloride.