Abstract:Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciaefolia),known as “the queen of forages”,is an important legume in temperate grasslands of northern China,whereas there is little information on the effect of phosphorus deficiency on physiological properties of sainfoin.In this study,using the new sainfoin lines P1,P2,and P3 as materials,O.viciaefolia ‘Gansu’ (CK1) and O.viciaefolia ‘Mengnong’ (CK2) as control,we investigated the effects of different phosphorus levels (0.01,0.30,0.60,and 1.00 mmol/L KH2PO4) on the growth,root morphology,leaf and root physiological characteristics of sainfoin,and explored the mechanism of sainfoin adapting to low-phosphorus (P) stress.Results showed that under low-P stress (0.01,0.30,and 0.60 mmol/L KH2PO4),there was a significant decrease in plant height,root volume,root surface area,root length and root tip number,leaf relative water content,root activity,root soluble sugar,root soluble protein,and MDA contents,respectively,while the contents of proline and MDA in leaves increased significantly;the contents of soluble sugar,soluble protein,chlorophyll in leaf and root proline content increased first and then decreased with the increase of phosphorus concentrations;meanwhile,the contents of proline,soluble sugar and MDA in leaf were higher than those in root,while soluble protein content was opposite during the whole period of stress.A subordinate function was used to rank their tolerance for phosphorus deficiency,and the order was: P2>CK1>P3>P1>CK2.