Abstract: Plants with persistent soil seed banks have advantages in stress and harsh environments. Soil samples were collected from 19 different soil sites with different vegetation at 5 locations across Yunnan, Southern China, at different times from July to April after the germination season of Eupatorium adenophorum seeds. Germination research results showed that E. adenophorum had a persistent soil seed bank. Its seeds distributed widely across soils in Yunnan and seeds were found at all 19 sample sites. Seed density in the 0-10 cm soil layer varied between 47-13 806 ind.·m-2 with an average of 2 202 ind.·m-2. The density did not show a direct relationship with the mother plant of E. adenophorum, but did show strong relationships with standing vegetation types. The density increased from 47 ind.·m-2 in newly deposited material of a slide to 801 ind.·m-2 under grass cover, to 2 349 ind.·m-2 under shrub cover, and the highest density of 3 255 ind.·m-2 under forest cover. Frequency of seeds identified from soil samples across all 19 soil types varied between 60%-100%. Vertically, seed density in the 0-2 cm soil layer was the highest, followed by the 2-5 cm layer, and the 5-10 cm depth had the lowest seed density. E. adenophorum seeds accounted for 56.1%, 25.2% and 18.6% of the total seeds in the three soil layers, respectively. Although the total percentage of seeds in the 5-10 cm layer was low, the total density was high (270 seeds·m-2) and, although not in the position of germination, had the potential for germination and being environmentally harmful. The wide distribution and high density of E. adenophorum in the soil seed bank have significant implications for any prevention and control measures, and we suggest that a long-term, large-scale approach should be taken to deal with the spread of E. adenophorum.