The experiment was conducted to study the morphological and physiological of 4 cultivars of 5-year-old Rhododendron under different drought stress. The results of drought damage index showed that the order of drought resistance from strong to weak was'Guoqihong'>'Yuhudie'>'Daqinglian'>'Yanzhimi' . With the drought stress increase, the relative water content of Rhododendron decrease significantly ( P<0. 05) while Malondialdehyde ( MDA) content and relative conductivity had a upward trend; Catalase (CAT) activity and soluble sugar showed different results due to various cultivars. The CAT activity of 'Guoqihong', 'Daqinglian' and 'Yanzhimi' decreased under the severe drought stress which was related to the plants have reached the limit drought stress and the ability of scavenging oxygen free radicals become decrease. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis showed that CAT, soluble sugar, MDA, relative conductivity and relative water content were closely related with drought resistance of Rhododendron. Drought resistance of 4 Rhododendron cultivars from strong to weak, evaluated by the method of membership function, were'Guoqihong'>'Yuhudie'>'Daqinglian'>'Yanzhimi' which was consistent with drought damage index.
Rhododendrondrought resistancephysiological responseprincipal component analysismembership function method
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
维普
万方数据
