Many environmental factors affect plant growth and development. Such factors vary in their effects on plants and can interact to strengthen or weaken the effect of another factor when acting simultaneously. Air temperature and soil salt are two environmental factors that commonly influence the growth of bamboo. Air temperature may lead to differences in the salt tolerance of bamboo in different seasons. However, knowledge about seasonal variation in salt tolerance of evergreen plants is limited. Oligostachyum lubricum is an important evergreen bamboo species in subtropical regions of China with multiple uses including shoot production, protection against soil erosion in coastal areas, and water conservation. O. lubricum exhibits resistance to low temperature and salt stress, as well as rapid growth and a long shooting period from May to October. To study seasonal variations in salt tolerance of O. lubricum, a pot experiment in which plants were treated with different soil NaCl concentrations was carried out. Two-year-old seedlings of similar height and diameter at breast height were treated by incorporating NaCl (0, 1‰, 2‰, 3‰, 4‰ and 5‰) into the soil. Each treatment contained three replicates. Plants were treated from November to December (winter) and May to June (summer). The leaf abscission rate and leaf physiological characteristics (ion leakage rate, malondialdehyde content, chlorophyll content, chlorophyll a/b ratio, superoxide dismutase activity, peroxidase activity, proline content, and soluble protein content) were recorded after 45 days salt treatment in both seasons. At a low soil NaCl concentration (1‰-2‰), the variation in leaf abscission rate and physiological parameters compared with the control was similar in winter and summer, which indicated that no seasonal variation in tolerance to low salinity existed. At a high soil salt concentration (3‰-5‰ NaCl), variation in soluble protein content compared with the control showed the same trend in summer and winter, whereas the variations from the control in leaf abscission rate, ion leakage rate, superoxide dismutase activity, peroxidase activity, proline content and chlorophyll content in winter were smaller than those in summer. With increasing soil NaCl concentration, the differences in the values of these physiological characteristics between summer and winter increased, whereas malondialdehyde content and chlorophyll a/b ratio showed the opposite trend. The results indicated that O. lubricum seedlings stressed by a high soil salt concentration (3‰-5‰) were injured more severely in summer than during winter under the same soil NaCl concentration. Thus, O. lubricum seedlings showed much higher salt tolerance in winter than in summer, and air temperature and soil salt acting simultaneously had a significant effect on seedling growth.