Abstract: Flagellar cinquefoil (Potentilla flagellaris Willd. ex Schlecht) was shaded to understand its shading tolerance. The indicators such as plant growth, leaf anatomical structure, pigment content, physiological indexes and photosynthetic characteristics were determined in the experiment. The results show that the leaf thickness and petiole length in full sunlight and covered with one or two layers of sunshade nets (of the transmittance rate 40.7%, 17.1%, respectively)were significantly or very significantly higher than that covered with three layers of sunshade nets (of the transmittance rate 5.35%), the root and canopy ratio of those was very significantly lower than that of the three layers treatment. Variation and difference between the treatments in the thickness of palisade and spongy tissue were coincided with those in leaf thickness. There were no significant differences among the treatments in the ratio of palisade and spongy tissue thickness. With the increase of shading degree, stoma density and MDA concentration decreased while chlorophyll and carotenoid content in the leaves increased significantly, transpiration rate and stomatal conductance tended to decrease at the beginning and increased afterwards, however, SOD activities and net photosynthetic rate tended to increase at the beginning and decreased afterwards. According to comprehensive indexes analyzed and the plant performance observed in the field, Flagellar cinquefoil can be considered as a plant which can adapt and grow well in relative wide range of light conditions from full sunlight to some shading degree, which covered with one or two layers of sunshade nets (no less than 17% of transmittance rate and 10.7×10³ Lux of light intensity).

Key words: Flagellar cinquefoi, shading, growth, leaf anatomical structure, physiological characteristics