Abstract:The Karst landscape, one of the three vulnerable ecotones, is very widespread in the world, but especially in the large limestone region of southwest China. It often features water limitation to plants due to low water retention capacity and high exposure of rocks. Therefore, it is a very important issue to find some drought-resistant plants for vegetation restoration and reconstruction in the limestone area. In order to assess the suitability of trees in the limestone area, we studied the resistance of root growth characteristics of Cupressus funebris Endl. seedlings to water stress and their recovery after re-watering. Our controlled experiment included four water levels: control (CK), light water stress (LS), medium water stress (MS) and severe water stress (SS). The results are as follows: The length of Cupressus funebris Endl. seedlings had a trend of increase when the water stress was only moderate, and after re-watering, it increased more. However, with the aggravation of stress, the seedlings decreased the surface area, average diameter and volume of roots. After re-watering, all these indices could recover to the level of CK but they could not when suffering SS. Light water stress had no effect on the shoot growth, but obviously restrained the root growth, so that the root-to-shoot ratio of Cupressus funebris Endl. seedlings showed a trend of decrease at the beginning of stress, but a trend of increase at the end. Cupressus funebris Endl. seedlings had a strategy of allocating more carbohydrate to stems and leaves under light stress while allocating more carbohydrate to roots under severe stress. Re-watering promoted the increase of shoot and root biomass, nevertheless, different extents and periods of stress had different influences on the growth of shoot and root.