To clarify the effects of lead(Pb)stress on the growth and photosynthetic characteristics of Rehmannia glutinosa，and to explore the response mechanism of medicinal plants to heavy metal stress，a pot experiment wasconducted using‘Beijing No.3’as the experimental material to investigate growth mass leaf photosynthetic pigmentcontent，photosynthetic parameters and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters as influenced by five exogenous Pb concentration(50，100，200，300，400 mg·kg -1). Soil without added Pb was used as the control(0 mg·kg -1). The results showedthat high concentration of Pb treatment inhibited the growth of leafnumber，leaflength，leaf width and leaf thickness of R. glutinosa. The photosynthetic pigment content and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters increased first and then decreasedwith the increase of Pb concentration during the whole growth period. Electron transportrate，photosynthetic quantumyield，maximum fluorescence and initial fluorescence were significantly decreased. With the increase of Pbconcentration，the netphotosyntheticrate，stomatal conductance and intercellular CO 2 concentration of R. glutinosa leaves gradually decreased from the initial stage of R. glutinosa expansion to the early stage of R. glutinosaexpansion，and increased first and then decreased from the middle stage to the harvest stage. The transpiration rate decreased with the increase of Pb concentration during the whole growth period. The tolerance of photosynthetic characteristics of R. glutinosa to Pb was 50 mg·kg-1 treatment>100 mg·kg -1 treatment>0 mg·kg -1 treatment>200 mg·kg -1 treatment>300 mg·kg -1 treatment>400 mg·kg -1 treatment. This study compared the effects of different Pb concentrations on the growth and photosynthetic characteristics of R. glutinosain different growth stages，and analyzed the resistance mechanism of R. glutinosato Pb，in order to provide an important technical reference for the safe use of farmland soil and the planting management of R. glutinosa.