In order to investigate the effects of atapulgite water retaining agent on the growth and senescence ofwheat，the field experiment was conducted at Baoshan Test Site of Qingdao Agricultural University in Huangdao district to study the diverse influence of the different application amounts of atapulgite water retaining agent on photosynthetic characteristics and senescence of flag leaves of wheat. The winter wheat cultivar Jimai 22 was used. The results showed that after wheat floweringstage，the net photosynthetic rates of T1，T2 and T3 treatments was higher than that of CK and T4，and T3>T2>T1>CK>T4，which indicated that the proper amount of atapulgite had a certain promoting effect on the net photosynthetic rate ofwheat，and the trend of stomatalconductance，chlorophyll content and transpiration rate was consistent with it. The trendof superoxide dismutase(SOD)activity，peroxidase(POD)activity and catalase(CAT)activity in the flag leaves of wheat during grain filling stage increased with the increase of application rate but had a negative effect when the amountwas excessive. Thealdehyde(MDA)content trend wasopposite，indicating that the application of the appropriate amount of attapulgite water-retaining agent could delay the senescence of wheat flag leaves. Net photosynthetic rate，stomatalconductance，chlorophyll content were significantly positively correlated with yield，whileSOD，POD and CAT were extremely significantly positively correlated with yield. This study showed that when the application rate of attapulgite water-retaining agent was 22.5 kg/hm²，the number ofpanicles，grain number per spike and 1 000 -grain weight increased by8.5%，6.3%，11.6% compared with the control，respectively，and the yield increased by 10.8%，which was the best under the conditions of this experiment.