Quercus virginiana, an evergreen oak tree, also called live oak, is one of the main tree species along southeastern coast of the United States. This species is distributed naturally from Texas, east to Florida and north to Virginia. It is an important landscape and shade tree species native to the southeastern U.S. Due to their tolerance to high concentration of salt fog, they are used extensively along the U.S. Gulf Coast and East Coast, and as far north as the outer banks of North Carolina. Live oak was introduced to China in 2000 for the first time. Although a certain field experiments were conducted to study the saline adaptability of live oak in China and the salt stress tolerance of live oak in the regional trial has been confirmed around the Yangtze River Delta, little is known about the effects of salt stress on growth of seedlings of live oak and its possible mechanisms of salt tolerance under controlled laboratory conditions. To assess the effects of salt stress on 2-year-old seedlings of live oak, experiment was carried out by sand culture in the greenhouse by adding NaCl into Hoagland solution with lower concentration (50 mmol?L-1) and higher concentration (150 mmol?L-1). During the test, the parameters such as plant growth, root morphology and the uptake, translocation and distribution of mineral nutrients including Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, NO-3 in different organs of Q. virginiana were measured. The results showed that the growth of shoots and roots were enhanced to some extent under both lower and higher concentration of NaCl. Compared with the result of control, the dry weight of shoots and roots, root length, root surface area and root volume increased significantly with 50 mmol?L-1 NaCl treatment (P<0.05) while changed slightly with 150 mmol?L-1 NaCl treatment. With the increasing uptake of Na+ and Cl- by roots, the accumulation of K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ in roots and shoots decreased significantly (P<0.05). The ability of K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ transporting from root to shoot was enhanced under lower concentration of NaCl whereas inhibited under higher concentration of NaCl. The K+ and NO-3 selective absorption to leaves of Q. virginiana were strengthened under lower and higher concentration of NaCl, which was significant for keeping iron homeostasis and photosynthesis in leaves. The results also showed that the concentrations of Na+ and Cl- in roots were much higher than that in shoots under the situation of salt stress, which may suggest the tolerance mechanism of Q. virginiana to salt stress can be ascribed to the high ability in accumulation of Na+ and Cl- in roots while transport few amount of Na+ and Cl- to shoots thereby maintaining the normal growth of shoots.