Drought is the main reason to limit the increase of sugarcane yield in China. The drought resistance of 20 sugarcane varieties (strains) selected from Lincang, the main sugarcane planting area in Yunnan, was analyzed under pot and artificial water control conditions. Eight physiological indexes of stress tolerance at seedling and tillering stage, and tillering rate, survival rate and plant height were determined. Drought resistance of the sugarcane varieties was evaluated by fuzzy membership function, principal component analysis and systematic cluster analysis. After drought stress, the relative water content and chlorophyll content of sugarcane leaves, the tiller rate, plant height and survival rate decreased significantly, while the content of malondialdehyde, proline and soluble sugar, plasma membrane permeability, enzyme activities of SOD and POD showed an increasing trend. 20 sugarcane varieties (strains) could be divided into 3 categories through fuzzy membership function, principal component analysis and systematic cluster analysis, including 7 drought-resistant varieties (strains), 6 moderately drought-resistant varieties/strains and 7 drought-sensitive varieties (strains). The 7 drought-resistant varieties (strains) ranked as ‘GT06-2081’> ‘LC05-136’> ‘FN38’> ‘LC03-1137’ >‘DZ03-83’ >‘YZ05-49’ >‘FN40’ according to the comprehensive value. Correlation analysis showed that survival rate, plant height and relative water content of leaves were significantly positively correlated with drought resistance, while plasma membrane permeability, proline and soluble sugar content were significantly negatively correlated with drought resistance.
