Determining Freezing Injury from Changes in Chlorophyll Fluorescence in Potted Oleander Plants

Physiological and biochemical indicators that reflect the responses of plants to chilling stress could be useful for identifying plant damage caused by freezing or other stresses. The objective of this study was to determine any relationship between changes in chlorophyll fluorescence and the appearance of visual symptoms resulting from freezing temperatures in two cultivars of oleander. In the least frost-sensitive cultivar (yellow oleander), freezing temperatures (-4 °C for 3 h) did not produce changes in the photochemical parameters. In the more frost-sensitive cultivar (pink oleander), non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and the maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (F v /F m ) decreased after the same freezing treatment. The first of these potential indicators remained low, whereas the second steadily recovered during the 4 months after freezing simulation. The results suggest that measuring chlorophyll fluorescence may provide a rapid method for assessing freezing injury in oleander.