We have examined the widely held theory that ethanol toxicity is a prime cause of the injury and death of plants in soil flooded with water. The tests were made on peas {Pisum sativum L.) at the early flowering or fruiting stages, when they ar"e known to be severely injured by flooding.Supplying ethanol in aerobie or anaerobic nutrient solution at similar eoneentrations to those we found in flooded soil (up to 3.9 mol m"^) or in the xylem sap of flooded pea plants (up to 2.1 mol tn -^) caused no injury. One hundred times these concentrations gave little extra effect and failed to simulate flooding injury. Isolated leaf protoplasts and detached leaves wer"e also r-esistant to damage by ethanol at these concentrations.Other published rneasur"enients of ethanol concentrations in flooded plants are similar to or less than those we t"eport for pea plants. Exceptions irielude root nodules and germinating pea seeds. Reports by others of responses to applied ethanol in a wide variety of circutnstances confir-m that in flooded plants the amounts ar-e probably too small to explain the observed irijur-y. Alternative mechanisms are diseussed.