In the present study, FTIR was used to analyze changes in chemical component contents and spectra characters of 3-hexulose-6-phosphate synthase/6-phosphate-3-hexuloisomerase (HPS/PHI) over-expressing transgenic and wild-type (WT) geraniums under formaldehyde (HCHO) stress to examine if FTIR could be a new method for identification of phenotypic differences between the transgenic plants with a photosynthetic HCHO-assimilation pathway and the WT plants. The WT and transgenic geranium plants were treated with 4 mmol·L-1 HCHO for 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 days, respectively. The comparison of FTIR spectral characteristics at different time points between the transgenic and WT plants indicated that the contents of carbohydrate, proteins and aliphatic compounds were significantly higher than those in the WT plants after 4 days of HCHO-treatment. This may be due to installation of the photosynthetic HCHO-assimilation pathway in the transgenic geranium, which enhanced its ability to metabolize and assimilate HCHO, thus allowed more HCHO to be fixed to 6-phosphate fructose, and then entered assimilation pathways for synthesis of a variety of intracellular components. The results suggest that FTIR can be a new method to identify the phenotypic differences between transgenic plants with a photosynthetic HCHO-assimilation pathway and WT plants.