Moisture is the important factor for growth and survival of the plants, so the choice of the forage varieties is the key issues for the artificial grassland. Under environmental stress, a series of physiological and biochemical reactions occurs to eliminate or alleviate the phys_x005fiological damage induced by the stress. The drought resistance and cold tolerance of different species or even the different varieties of the same species are quite different. This paper described the resistance of the pastures including Medicago sativa, and Leymus chinensis, and we discuss and summarize the adaptive mechanisms of the plants to the drought stress including morphological structure, production, physiological and biochemical characteristics, antioxidase system, osmoregulation substrate and molecular genetics. Accordingly, this paper summarized the research advances during recent years and its development in future. We need to form a comprehensive index system of resistance and reveal the resistance mechanism efficiently and comprehensively. This paper will provide practically valuable basic data for the selection of the pastures in the artificial grassland.