During 1996- 1997, sixty samples were collected from apricot in Hebei Province, from which nineteen ice nucleation active bacterial strains were isolated. Nine stains were identified as Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae by bacteriological determination, while the others were Erwinia uredovora. Assay of ice nucleation activity (INA) showed the activity of the Pseudomonas strains was higher than that of the Erwinia.According to the number of bacterial cells required to produce one ice nucleus active at - 3℃, four stains was classified as strong ones, three as medium-strong, the remainder as weak. In general, the INA of these strains were regarded as medium-strong. Under stress of Iow temperatures, treatment of INA bacteria can greatly raised relative electric conductivity of petals and permeability of cell membrane. The treated petals showed symptoms of serious frost at - 3 - - 4℃ and had supercooling points of 2 - 3℃ higher than controls. Our results demon strated that INA bacteria are one major factor to incite frost damage to apricot flowers. We may reduce frost injury to apricot during flowering phage through control of INA bacteria.