In order to explore the growth and physiological response of eight herbaceous plants to salt stress and their salt‐tolerance ability,to select landscape plants for saline‐alkali land of Lanzhou New Area,the effects of differ‐ ent concentrations(0,0. 4%,0. 8%,1. 20%)of NaCl stress on seedling growth and physiological indices of eight plant species were studied. The salt‐tolerance abilities of eight plant species were evaluated using the principal com‐ ponent and comprehensive index evaluation method. Results showed that with the increase of NaCl concentration,av‐ erage root diameter,root activity,leaf relative water content and soluble protein content in leaf and in root of the eight plant species decreased gradually. In contrary,root volume,root surface area,root length,root tip number,soluble sugar and MDA contents and SOD activity in leaf and in root increased significantly. Chlorophyll a content,chloro‐ phyll b content,chlorophyll content,and chloroplast pigment content first decreased and then increased significantly. By contrast,POD and CAT activities in leaf and in root first increased and then decreased significantly. The highest increase occurred at 0. 8% concentration of NaCl stress. The results of principal component and comprehensive analysis showed that the order of salt tolerance abilities of the eight plant species were as follows:Trifolium repens> Lolium perenne>Festuca arundinacea>Festuca rubra>Cosmos bipinnata>Trifolium pretense>Lolium multiflo- rum>Poa annua.