Abstract:In order to understand the male sterility of Rosa sterilis, the pollen activities were observed by I2-KI staining method, and the physiological and biochemical characters of male sterile R. sterilis and fertile R. roburghii were studied at anther different development stage. The results showed that abortive pollen of R. sterilis accounted for 95.5%, while normal pollen of R. roburghii reached up to 99%. At different development stages of R. roburghii anther, the change trends in contents of soluble protein, soluble sugar and proline were similar, and soluble starch content increased. The change trends in contents of soluble protein, soluble sugar, proline and soluble starch were irregular, and their contents were significantly lower than those in R. roburghii at pollen mature stage, so that R. sterilis anther in mature pollen stage lack of the accumulation of nutrients. In the different development stage, SOD activity in R. sterilis were lower than that in R. roburghii. The MDA content increased in R. sterilis anther with the development, and the increment range was greater than that in R. roburghii. MDA content and POD activity were higher than those in R. roburghii. Therefore, it was suggest that the lack of nutrients and turbulence of enzyme system would be a reason of male sterility of R. sterilis.