The rhizomes of plants play an important role in many aspects, including asexual reproduction, communication and resource sharing between ramets, and foraging in heterogeneous environments. Rhizomatous clonal plants are popular research subjects in fields such as invasion ecology and global change biology. Rhizomatous clonal plants show a special adaptation to heterogeneous habitats through morphological plasticity, foraging behavior, physiological integration, as well as fitness. This paper summarizes and analyzes domestic and international case studies of rhizomatous clonal plants from recent years. Some current issues are discussed, such as the limit hypothesis and the adaptation hypothesis on the origin of morphological plasticity and diversity, intensive foraging and extensive foraging in foraging behavior, and the benefit of ramet spacer's maintain or break. Finally, research priorities for this domain are presented.