Abstract: Since 1990s, with the increasing attention to the quality of water environment, aquatic plants as a small ecological group has received more and more attention in China. Research on the diversity of aquatic plants since 1990s are concluded from the aspects of catalogue of aquatic plant diversity, threats of aquatic plant diversity (wetland degradation, water eutrophication, global warming, invasion of alien species), basic researches (genetic diversity, seed bank, seed vitality maintenance mechanism) and conservation practice (nature reserve, germplasm bank), with a view to providing recommendations for better follow-up protection.