Abstract: It is well known that high light often causes decreased chlorophyll in plants, but the photosynthetic and physiological characteristics of reduced chlorophyll variants under high light is not well understood. Physiological responses to high light intensity in the green stripe and yellow stripe leaf variants of Chlorophytum capense var. medio-pictum were investigated in this study. The results showed that under normal light levels, PSⅡ activity of yellow stripe plants was lower than those of green stripe. However, the level of reactive oxygen species remained elevated. After 6 hours of high light stress, the level of reactive oxygen species and activity of antioxidant enzymes varied less in yellow stripe plants. Under a few minutes of high light stress, non-photochemical quenching increased in all tissues, but the non-photochemical quenching of the yellow stripe plants increased less than the others. These results demonstrated that excess light energy in yellow-stripe leaf tissue was not dissipated in the form of heat; furthermore, the level of non-photochemical quenching in yellow stripe plants was restored in a few minutes.