The identification of drought resistance of four species of Festuca L. at seedlings stage.

The drought resistant characteristics of four species of Festuca L.at seedling stage were studied through successive drought,repeated drought and rewatering,and their drought-resistance order was compared through integrated appraisal,and the identification indices of drought resistance of Festuca species were given.The results show that the leaf tissue water content(TWC),relative water content(RWC),and soil relative water content(SRWC) decreased significantly(P0.05),while cell membrane permeability(REC),praline(PRO) content,malondialdehyde(MDA) content,and chlorophyll content increased significantly under the successive drought stess(P0.05);all of the indices recovered to different degrees after rewatering.F.arundincea cv.Fawn had the lowest(40%) survival rate,F.kryloviana Reverd.and F.kirilovii Steud.the medium(50%),and F.sinensis Keng.the highest(80%) under repeated drought stress.Their drought-resistance order at seedling stage was F.sinensisF.krylovinaF.kiriloviiF.arundinacea.Leaf PRO,RWC,and chlorophyll a content could be used as the preferred physiology and biochemistry indices for the drought resistance identification of Festuca species and SRWC,leaf withering rate,and survival rate the reliable biological identification indices.