Abstract: In 2010-2011, a sand burial experiment was conducted on the Horqin Sand Land of Inner Mongolia to study the  growth characteristics and physiological properties of Agriophyllum squarrosum seedlings  under different depths of sand burial. The A. squarrosum seedlings had stronger tolerance against sand burial. The seedling growth could be severely inhibited when the burial depth exceeded seedling height, but some seedlings could still be survived when the burial depth exceeded 1.66 times of seedling height. When the burial depth did not exceed the seedling height, the seedling MDA content and membrane permeability had no significant change, but the lipid peroxidation was aggravated and the cell membrane was damaged with increasing burial depth. Under sand burial stress, the seedling SOD and POD activities and proline content increased significantly, while the seedling CAT activity and soluble sugar content deceased. Sand burial decreased the leaf photosynthetic area and damaged cell membrane, inducing the increase of seedling mortality and the inhibition of seedling growth. The increase of SOD and POD activities and proline content played a definite role in reducing the sand burial damage to  A. squarrosum seedlings.