Abstract: The chilling injury to the common garden plants in Guangzhou city was investigated selectively in late February,2008.Results showed that a large number of the common garden plants were slightly or severely injured by the cold weather during this winter,belonging to 60 families,154 species,and the damaged grade ranked from I to V.It is found that those severely injured species mostly fell into several tropics-distributed families,such as Apocynaceae,Agavaceae,Pandanaceae and Heliconiaceae;Herbs were more vulnerable than wooden plants.The chilling injury degrees of the plants were also related with their habitats,planting time and cultivated management etc..According to these results,some suggestions about introduction and cultivation of garden plants in Guangzhou city were also proposed in this paper.

Key words: chilling injury, common garden plants, Guangzhou, investigation