To well understand the role of energy in respiratory electron transport pathways during senescence of plant tissues, cut carnation flowers were treated with 0.1 mmol/L ATP or 0.5 mmol/L dinotrophenol (DNP) and then held at 25?1?C and 80%~90% relative humidity. A climacteric peak of respiration rate appeared at the 7th day of vase life. ATP treatment enhanced the respiration rate. Furthermore, a linear relationship existed between cytochrome respiration and total respiration. The contribution from the cytochrome respiration pathway to the total respiration increased after 4 days of vase holding, which indicated that the electron transport depended mainly on the cytochrome respiration pathway. Treatment with ATP increased the capacity, operative activity and operation coefficient of the alternative respiration pathway, and the ratio of the alternative respiration pathway to the total respiration increased after 4 days of vase holding with a significant linear relationship between the alternative respiration pathway capacity and the total respiration. DNP treatment reduced the alternative respiration pathway capacity. These results suggested that the addition of ATP to vase solution enhanced total respiration throughout the whole vase holding and increased the alternative respiration pathway capacity.