Phosphors-converted LEDs (pc-LEDs) are excellent artificial light sources for indoor plant cultivation, in which the far-red-emitting component (700−780 nm) plays an important role in regulating the photomorphogenesis of plants. Accordingly, highly efficient and thermally stable far-red-emitting phosphors are indispensable for developing high-performance plant cultivation pc-LEDs. Herein, far-red-emitting YAl 3 (BO 3 ) 4 :Cr 3+ (YAB:Cr 3+ ) phosphors were synthesized by solid-state reaction, and their photoluminescence characteristics, thermal quenching, quantum yield (QY), and application in pc-LEDs were systematically investigated. The YAB:Cr 3+ phosphor has an intense broadband absorption to the blue light, simultaneously exhibiting the sharp-line 2 E emission and the broadband 4 T 2 emission of Cr 3+ with a QY of ~86.7%.The far-red broadband emissions of YAB:Cr 3+ centered at ~735 nm show a high resemblance to the active-state (P FR ) absorption of plant phytochrome. Moreover, the YAB:Cr 3+ phosphor shows the thermally enhanced luminescence at temperatures of 303−393 K and the near-zero thermal quenching up to 423 K. The anomalous thermal enhancement is attributed to the temperature-dependent repopulation between 2 E and 4 T 2 states. Finally, a pc-LED device was fabricated with the YAB:Cr 3+ phosphor and blue chip, exhibiting the light out power of ~50.6 mW and energy conversion efficiency of ~17.4% at 100 mA drive current, respectively. The exceptional PL features including suitable excitation/emission wavelengths, suppressed thermal quenching and high QY make YAB:Cr 3+ phosphors very promising for applications in plant growth pc-LEDs.