Abstract: Foliar spray of 100 mg/L of etherphon was done with two sugarcane varieties G11 and ROC20 at early tillering stage. The main results were as follows: (1) For variety ROC20, the ethephon treatment enhanced remarkably the density of vascular bundles and enlarged the areas of epigenetic vessels and phloem, and resulted in more silicon but less zinc in the leaves as compared with the control. (2) For variety GT11, the ethephon treatment increased the contents of silicon, magnesium and zinc, but no obvious effects were found on the vascular bundle structures in the leaves.