【Objectives】 Drought significantly affects crop growth and yield,making the improvement of crop varieties’ drought resistance a crucial aspect of contemporary agricultural research. This experiment delved into the drought resistance of green manure crops to provide a theoretical foundation for selecting green manure varieties in arid areas.【Method】 Five green manure crops,i. e. Vicia villosa,V. villosa var. glabbresens,Astragalus sinicus, Melilotus officinalis and V. sativa,were studied. Hyperosmotic solutions of 0,5%,10%,15%,and 20% PEG‐6000 were employed to simulate drought stress. Germination rate and potential were measured during the germination stage,while germination index,drought resistance index,and membership function were calculated. At the seedling stage,soluble sugar,proline,malondialdehyde,and electrical conductivity were determined,and the membership function was calculated.【Result】 The results showed that except for V. sativa,the germination rate of other green manure crops was higher than the control at 5% and 10% PEG‐6000 concentrations,suggesting that low PEG‐6000 concentrations promoted seed germination to some extent. However,stress concentration increased,the germination rate, potential,index,and drought resistance coefficient of the five green manure seeds decreased continuously. Evaluation index values suggested the drought resistance order as follows:A. sinicus>M. officinalis>V. villosa var. glabbresens >V. sativa> V. villosa. At the seedling stage,the activity of soluble sugar,proline,malondialdehyde,and electrical conductivity increased compared to the control. The soluble sugar and malondialdehyde content increased by 16. 27mg/g and 0. 39μmol/g compared with the control,respectively. V. villosa and V. villosa var. glabbresens exhibited a notable increase in proline content compared to the control,with V. villosa showing a 46. 13 μg/g increase and V. villosa var. glabbresens a 31. 03 μg/g increase. The electrical conductivity of V. villosa increased by 22. 06% compared with CK,and the increase was the largest among the five legumes. The integration analysis of indexes indicated the drought‐resistance order as V. sativa>V. villosa>M. officinalis>V. villosa var. glabbresens>A. sinicus 【Conclusions】 The study concluded that V. sativa and V. villosa var. glabbresens are more suitable for cultivation in arid and waterscarce areas compared to M. officinalis,A. sinicus and V. villosa.