Abstract: In order to better know the biologic traits of rhizobia symbiotic with Desmodium styacifolium that is a kind of Chinese traditional medicine, we analyzed the resistance to stresses of 14 rhizobia nodulated with Desmodium styacifolium, including different concentrations of NaCl, temperatures, pH and heavy metals. The genetic diversity by using BOX-PCR finger printings and the phylogeny of recA gene was also performed. The results showed that the tested strains had the similar resistance to different concentrations of NaCl and pH, but different for temperatures and heavy metals. Four rhizobial isolates can grow in the condition of 4℃ and most tested strains can grow on YMA plate contained 4mM Zn2+、Pb2 and Zn2+/Pb2. And two strains can resist to 4mM Cu2+. The rhizobial isolates had the identical genomic finger printings based on BOX-PCR analysis. The representative rhizobial strains based on the phylogeny of recA gene had a similar result with BOX-PCR finger printings. One isolate belongs to the genus of Rhizobium and other thirteen strains belong to the genus of Bradyrhizobium.