Abstract:A pot experiment was conducted to clarify the recovery effects of maize seedlings after water-logging. A popular maize variety Zhengdan 958 was used in this experiment. Plants were first grown under normal water condition for 20 days, and then subjected to three treatments: (1) normal condition (CK); (2) water-logging 7 days (W1), then recovery for 7 and 14 days; and (3) water-logging 14 days (W2), then recovery for 7 and 14 days. Soil moisture was maintained at (75±5)% in CK, while a 3-4cm water layer was maintained in W1 and W2 during water-logging period. The results showed as follows: (1) Root growth was limited under water-logging. The total root length, root surface-area, and root volume significantly decreased after 7 days of water-logging, while significantly increased (P<0.01) after 14 days of water-logging due to the development of adventitious roots. (2）Leaf growth was also limited by water-logging, i.e. leaf area, index of leaf type and number of leaves were reduced. (3）The photosynthetic performance and photosynthetic pigment content decreased under water-logging, but chlorophyll a/b increased after 7 days of waterlogging. Stomatal restriction was the main factor for reduction of Pn after 7 days of water-logging, while non-stomatal restriction became more important after 14 days of waterlogging. (4）Maize seedlings could recover after water-logging, but the recovery growth rate became slower after longer period of water-logging. Moreover, physiological factors recovered faster than morphological factors. The strong sunlight had an effect of limiting recovery growth after water-logging.