Abstract: Plant leaf traits reflect the resource acquisition strategies of plants. Shrubs are the dominant plant life form and play an important role in Horqin sandy land. Herbaceous plants under the canopy may be affected by the shrubs. We determined the variations of leaf traits, including specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf area (AR), dry matter (DM), leaf thickness (TH), leaf nitrogen content (LNC) per mass, leaf phosphorus content (LPC) per mass, between, under, and out of (open space) the shrubs.SLA, AR, DM, and LNC were 47.9%, 115.2%, 56.3%, and 63.3% higher respectively under the canopy of Caragana microphylla shrubs than in open space). An inverse trend was observed in three other traits (LDMC, TH, and LPC) which were 22.1%, 24.0%, and 34.6% lower respectively under this shrub canopy than in the open. The shrubs affected the growth of Setarria viridis by changing the shrub environment. Leaf area varied most among the leaf traits and this suggested that S. viridis under the shrub canopy may increase the size of photosynthetically active leaf surface area, thus offsetting the inevitable reduction in photosynthetic rate imposed by limited light supply.Shading also greatly changed the nutrient allocation and nutrient utilization efficiency, explaining the inverse change trend of LNC and LPC between, under, and out of the shrubs. The significant increase of LNC under the shrub canopy may be the result of the interaction of fertile islands and shading.