The growth of fruit trees inevitably casts a certain degree of shade on the grass plants in the orchard. Therefore, the selected grass species usually need to possess a certain level of shade tolerance. This study investigated the shade tolerance of two prevalent ground cover species in southern China, Alysicarpus bupleurifolius (L.) DC. and Alysicarpus vaginalis (L.) DC.. Different shading treatments were set with full light as the control (CK). Growth and physiological indices of the two species were measured, and a comprehensive evaluation of the shade tolerance was conducted to assess the potential as ground cover species in orchards. Findings indicated that as shading intensified, both species exhibited an overall increase in the leaf width, leaf area plant height and the proportion of aboveground biomass, while the stem diameter and total biomass showed a downward trend. Compared with A. vaginalis, the leaf area of A. bupleurifolius increased faster after 21 days of shading treatment, and the total biomass decreased less after 42 days of shading treatment. After shading treatment, the PSII maximum photochemical quantum yield (Fv/Fm) of the two plants was higher than 0.80, and shading did not cause serious damage to the photosynthetic system of the two plants. The relative electrical conductivity and malondialdehyde content of the leaves of the two species generally rose with increased shading intensity, whereas the peroxidase activity (POD) activity under shading conditions displayed distinct patterns. With the increase of shading intensity, the POD activity of A. bupleurifolius increased first and then decreased, while that of A. vaginalis showed a downward trend. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to reduce the dimensionality of 14 shade tolerance indices into two principal components, which cumulatively accounted for 88.66% of the total variance. In the first principal component (PC1), the contribution rate of malondialdehyde (MDA) content was the highest. In the second principal component (PC2), the contribution rate of leaf relative conductivity was the highest. The results of comprehensive evaluation of shade tolerance by membership function method showed that A. bupleurifolius was higher than that of A. vaginalis under identical shading conditions, indicating that the shade tolerance of A. bupleurifolius was higher than that of A. vaginalis. In summary, both A. bupleurifolius and A. vaginalis exhibit noticeable shade tolerance, with A. bupleurifolius outperforming A. vaginalis, thereby affirming the potential as viable orchard ground cover species.