Abstract:Phyllostachys pubescens, one of the most important bamboo plants in the world, is widely distributed and planted in China. Due to its rapid growth feature, long growth period and high photosynthetic efficiency, this plant has high environmental and economic value. It has been reported that the photosynthetic pigment content and its reflectance spectrum was closely related to leaf growth process of P. pubescens, and a model of reflectance spectrum was established for monitoring the plant growth. The stem of P. pubescens has abundant pigments. However, to our knowledge, no study has been reported on the relationship between reflectance spectrum characteristics and pigment contents in the stems of the plant. So we tested the pigment contents and reflectance spectrum parameters in the stem and examined its correlations. The results showed that: (1) The content of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids increased with the stem growth under its rapid growth stage, and the content of these pigments reached the highest level after 60 days, (2) The value of the reflectance spectral parameters (GNDVI, PSDNa, PSSDa, PSSDb, PSDNb, mND705, mSR705, CRI1, ARI1 and PRI) increased with the growth of the stems but the value of NPCI, SIPI and RGI decreased. The change of Sred was mainly raised under the rapid growth stage. The value of those parameters was significantly changed from 20 days to 30 days. (3) The reflectance spectrum parameters, such as GNDVI, PSSRa, PSSRb, PSSRc, PSNDa, PSNDb, PSNDc, NPCI, mSR705, mND705, Dλred and λred, were significantly (P < 0.01) correlated with the content of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids. The correlation coefficients between reflectance spectral parameters (PSSRb, mSR705, CRI2, PRI, ARI1 and ARI2) and pigment (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoid) content were higher and near to 0.9, indicating that these reflectance spectral parameters can be used to evaluate the content of chlorophyll and carotenoids.