In order to understand the response of alfalfa to drought stress,a greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of drought stress on the performance of 8 alfalfa cultivars.A random completely block experiment was conducted between alfalfa cultivars and drought stress.There were 3 drought stress levels including 80% (control),55% and 30% of field water holding capacity.The result demonstrated that the aboveground and belowground biomass decreased gradually with increasing levels of drought stress.The aboveground biomass of BC-9 alfalfa and Zhaodong was less affected by drought stress than other alfalfa cultivars,with the means of the 2 cultivars being 3.22 and 2.75 g DM/pot,respectively,and the means on belowground biomass was 1.34 and 0.65 g/pot,respectively.Henan alfalfa and Bowei were affected severely by drought stress,With the mean aboveground biomass being 1.87 and 1.85 g/pot,and the mean belowground biomass 0.75 and 0.91 g DM/pot,respectively.Branch density and plant height gradually decreased with increasing water stress.There were positive relationships (R2=0.96~0.99) between water content and biomass,and between branch density and plant height.This indicated that plants may have altered their shoot and root structures in order to avoid damage in the progress of water deficit.Understanding the effect of water deflict on production performance of alfalfa under drought stress can help provide the mechanism basis in drought tolerance in the future.