Based on the experiment of water stress in pots, the drought tolerance characteristics of the main afforestation trees in northwest Hubei province were studied. The index variation characters of shape, water relations and physiological metabolism of Pinus elliottii, Couningharnia lanceolata, Robinia pseuidoacacia, Platycladus orientalis, Hi ppophae rhamnoides (introduction), and. Caragana korshinskii (introduction) under water stress were emphatically analyzed; based on that, the drought tolerance characteristics of potted trees were synthetically evaluated. The results showed that six seedling trees for testing had stronger ability of fighting the drought. The ability of fighting the drought of Caragana korshinskii and Platycladus orientalis were stronger than that of Pinus elliottii, Couningharnia lanceolata and Robinia pseuidoacacia.