Camellia petelotii (Merr.) Sealy is a rare medicinal and edible plant in China whose wild species have a narrow distribution range and poor adaptability to strong light. To explore the light-response mechanism, the transcriptome-and photosynthesis-related physical and chemical indicators of leaves were analyzed under gradient light intensity of three processing conditions (100, 300, 700 µmol·m−2·s−1, photosynthetically active radiation, PAR) with 5 h of treatment in this study. A preliminary comparative analysis found that under strong lig...