Abstract: The plant leaf water-holding functional groups were classified using principal component analysis, redundancy ordination analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis from the point of plant modality structure-function-plant functional groups. The results showed that, there were three factors, which determined the function of water-holding capacity, i.e. leaf size, leaf L/W and leaf roughness, then thirty one species were classified into six plant leaf water-holding functional groups based on the appraisement of water-holding capacity of the species in Moutai water functional district. The six plant functional groups were as follows: large leaf narrow leaf medium roughness high water holdup PFGsⅠ, medium leaf narrow leaf high roughness high water holdup PFGsⅡ, medium leaf broad leaf high water holdup PFGsⅢ, small leaf narrow leaf low roughness moderate water holdup PFGsⅣ, medium leaf broad leaf low roughness moderate water holdup PFGsⅤ, medium leaf normal leaf low roughness low water holdup PFGsⅥ. In the meantime, the basic features of the six PFGs were revealed.

Key words: plant leaf water-holding functional groups, leaf water-holding capacity, leaf modality features, Moutai water functional district, Guizhou