Abstract: The photosynthetic characteristics of five rootstocks of cherry Cerasus mahaleb (L. ) Mill. ,Cerasus pseudocerasus (Lindl. ) G. Don. ‘Daqingye ’, Cerasus sachalinensis Kom. , ‘Gisela 5 ’, and‘Colt’were studied by gas exchange. The results showed that there were differences among photosynthetic capacity, carboxylation efficiency, apparent quantum yield, CO₂ compensation points, CO₂ saturation points, light compensation pionts and light saturation points in the five rootstocks of cherry. The capacities of Cerasus mahaleb L. using low concentration CO₂ and high intensity illumination were high, and photosynthetic capacity was the biggest, though the capacity of using low light of Colt was higher than Cerasusm ahaleb L. and Gisela,the photosynthetic capacity of Colt was the smallest. Photosynthetic capacities were differences among the leaves of different position of the shoots, the proportion of the leaf areas of different position of new shoot in total areas and photosynthetic products in total photosynthetic products were different. The percentage of leaf area in total leaf area and photosynthetic products in total photosynthetic p roducts of the basal-middle, middle and mid2top part leaves was higher than that of the base and top part leaves, the leaves of basal-middle and middle
partswere bigger and developed better, which were the major parts of photosynthetic capacity.

Key words: Cherry, Rootstock, Photosynthetic characteristics