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The genus Passiflora of the passion fruit crop is the most important from economic point of view. However, its cultivation in the semi-arid region is at risk due to salinity problems, requiring the identification of tolerant species, which develop better in environments with salinity problems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of water salinity on growth and formation of seedlings of three species from the genus Passiflora. The treatments were distributed in a completely randomized design, adopting a 5 x 3 factorial arrangement, with five levels of irrigation water salinity (ECw) of 0.3; 1.4; 2.5; 3.6 and 4.7 dS m(-1) and three species of Passiflora: gibertii; cincinnata and edulis ’BRS Gigante Amarelo’, with four replicates. P. edulis surpassed the others in leaf area, shoot, root and total dry matter and Dickson index of seedling quality. Irrigation water salinity inhibits the formation of seedlings evaluated by growth in height, stem diameter and shoot, root and total dry matter of the studied species of Passiflora. The interaction between ECw and the Passiflora species interfered significantly in height, root, shoot and total dry matter and Dickson quality index. ECw above 0.3 dS m(-1) affects the Dickson quality index of P. gibertii more, compared with P. edulis and P. cincinnata.