Abstract: To understand the adaptability of colored plants on the light saline-alkali land in Tianjin, the physiological characteristics of six kinds of colorful plants, such as Sophora japonica cv. Golden stem, Ulmus pumila cv. jinye, Prunus Cerasifera Ehrhar f. Prunus Salicina and Prunus×cistena, Amygdalus persica f. atropurpurea, and Ailanthus altissima Var. were reseached according to their soluble sugar, soluble protein, free proline,malondialdehyde content, POD, and SOD activity in leaves.The results showed that the content of soluble sugar, soluble protein and POD of Ulmus pumila cv. jinye were the highest, and its content of malondialdehyde was the lowest（0.184%, 13.758 mg/g, 65.033 U/（g · min）and 0.005 μmol/g respectively）. Free proline content and SOD activity were the highest（43.186 μg/g, 0.582 U/g）in Sophora japonica cv. Golden stem The results of comprehensive membership function analysis showed that Ulmus pumila cv.jinye（0.826）and Sophora japonica cv. Golden stem（0.729）have the best adaptability, followed by Ailanthus altissima Var.（0.634）, Amygdalus persica f. atropurpurea（0.592）and Prunus Cerasifera Ehrhar f.（0.134）, while Prunus × cistena（0.009）was the worst.

Key words: saline-alkali land, color leaf plant, physiological features, adaptability