In order to screen out the germplasm resources of Medicago falcata L. with strong drought tolerance， 20 resources of M. falcata were selected in this study， and their drought tolerance was comprehensively evaluated by analyzing the changes in the content of morphological and physiological indexes of the seedlings， and by adopting the affiliation function method and cluster analysis.The results showed that under different drought stress treatments， all the 20 M. falcata germplasm resources showed different drought responses， as indicated by a downward trend in plant height， leaf area， survival rate， above ground biomass and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. The drought resistance of the 20 M. falcata seedlings was classified into 7 categories by cluster analysis， among which， the material A2Z311 had extremely drought-resistant， and the material A2Z525 had the weakest drought-resistant. Based on the D value of the affiliation function， the drought resistance was ranked from strong to weak as A2Z311>A2Z588>A2Z355>A2Z600>A2Z317>A2Z480>A2Z423>A2Z534>A2Z528>A2Z316>A2Z350>A2Z436>A2Z302>A2Z491>A2Z351>A2Z594>A2Z599>A2Z622>A2Z353>A2Z525. The present study indicates that the material A2Z311 could better adapt to the treatment of drought stress， and the survival rate， leaf area and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters all being 1， showing stronger drought resistance， which provides a theoretical basis for the selection and breeding of alfalfa varieties in arid areas.

Drought stress  /  Medicago falcata  /  Drought resistance