Physiological Responses and Tolerance of Varieties of Anthurium andraeanum to Low Temperature

Physiological responses and low temperature tolerance of 3 varieties of Anthurium andraeanum, Pink Champion, Sierra and Vito, were studied. Under low temperature stress, the cell membrane permeability (CMP), the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), chlorophyll a (Chla), chlorophyll b (Chlb) and chlorophyll (Chl), and the activities of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in leaves of the plants were determined and analyzed by the membership function method and the principal component analysis.The results showed that the CMP increased with prolonged stress, the relative electrolytic leakage (REC) increased by 128.20%-160.60%, and the MDA was 1.39-2.05 times of pre-treatment.Chla, Chlb and Chl increased initially, then decreased and followed by an increase. The CAT and SOD of Sierra was stable with low CMP and a slight decline on chlorophyll. Whereas, the CMP and MDA of Pink Champion and Vito increased significantly but unstable on the antioxidant activities. It appeared that Sierra was most cold resistant, and followed by Pink Champion, and Vito.