Abstract: Psychotria rubra and Rhodomytus tomentosa are the common shrubs in south China. The morphological, physiological and ecological characters of the shrubs were compared in this paper. The results show that: the number of root system, branch ,leaf of Rhodomytus tomentosa were larger than that of Psychotria rubra,the branch angles and distance of intervascular of Rhodomytus tomentosa were smaller than that of Psychotria rubra; the thickness of leaf and palisade tissue of Rhodomytus tomentosa were smaller than that of Psychotria rubra; Rhodomytus tomentosa was suited to sunny environment while Psychotria rubra grew well in shaded environment. In lower-subtropics, the light-transmissibility of community of 30% was the light undition under which the Psychotria rubra was able to invade but Rhodomytus tomentosa was not able to grow. The ecological strategies of the Rhodomytus tomentosa and Psychotria rubra were of r-strategist and K-strategist,respectively. The average photosynthetic rate, light compensation point, light saturation point, conductance and dark respiration rate of Psychotria rubra and Rhodomytus tomentosa were 5.9±1.6 and 11.9±0.4μmol CO2·m-2·s-1,0.005 and 0.012m mol·m-2·s-1,0.04 and 0.39,0. 053±0.037 μmol CO2·m-2·S-1 and 0.101±0.013mol·m-2·s-1 ,0.42±0.01 and 0.16±0.15μmolCO2 ·m-2·s-1, respectively. The morphological difference and plant physiological characters of the shrubs were closely related with their habitat.