In this study, different concentration of potassium cyanide (KCN) had been used to treat cucumber seedlings and found that it had a good tolerance to higher concentration (1mM) of exogenous cyanide treatment. Physiological analyses showed that cyanide pretreatment significantly induced the alternative oxidase (AOX) pathway and activated the β cyanoalanine synthase (β CAS). The results indicated that the AOX pathway and β CAS were essential to alleviate respiration inhibition and then contributed to normal growth during plant response to exogenous cyanide.