[Response in cuttings of Taxodium hybrid 'Zhongshanshan' and their parents to drought and re-hydration.]

In this study, three different strains of Taxodium hybrid 'Zhongshanshan' varieties [T. hybrid 302 (T. distichum♀×T. mucronatum♂), T. hybrid 407 (T. mucronatum♀×T. distichum♂), T. hybrid 118 (T. hybrid 302 ♀×T. macronatum ♂)] and their parents, T. distichum and T. mucronatum, were applied to investigate the response of photosynthetic characteristics, antioxidant enzyme systems and morphological characteristics to drought stress and recovery. The results indicated that as drought days were prolonged, all plants' net photosynthetic rate (Pn) decreased, while proline accumulated. Meanwhile, the antioxidases functioned to eliminate malonaldehyde toxicity. On the 8th day, the decrease of Pn of T. distichum was the biggest, T. hybrid 118 plants showed the highest water use efficiency and the smallest MDA content, while T. macronatum plants increased the activity of superoxide dismutase and content of proline. After rewatering for 2 days, all these parameters showed signs of recovery, and the T. hybrid 118 plants showed the fastest recovery rate since their Pn and proline content had recovered for 74.4% and 60.2%, respectively. Then after recovered for 9 days, all tested parameters had almost restored to equivalent levels of CK plants. The total biomass of T. hybrid 118 plants was not affected, while the ratio of root to shoot was significantly (P<0.05) increased. The drought-resistance capacity ranged as T. macronatum>T. hybrid 118>T. hybrid 407>T. hybrid 302>T. distichum plants. In conclusion, the backcross generation T. hybrid 118 plants largely inherited the drought resistance of T. mucronatum, and the result would be instrumental in breeding and popularization of drought-resistant hybrid varieties.