Species’ flooding tolerance can be characterized by its survival during submergence and by its recovery growth after de-submergence, to evaluate the tolerance of the riparian plant Salix variegata Franch. in Three Gorges reservoir region to flooding, a long-term flooding experiment was conducted and the survival and recovery growth of S. variegata were analyzed. Three flooding-depth levels and six flooding durations were set in the experiment. Three flooding-depth levels included control, belowground submergence(belowground of plants submerged in water) and complete submergence with 2m water depth(top of plants 2m below water surface). Six flooding durations included 20 days, 40 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days and 180 days. It was found in the experiment that: (1) The flooding had less effects on the survival of S. variegata. The survival percentage of the plants subjected to the belowground submergence was still 100% after 180d inundation, but it decreased to 0 after 180d submergence with 2m water depth. (2) The S. variegata plants were still able to start recovery growth after flooding, and showed strong recovery capability even though the recovery growth was different due to the different intensities of water submergence. With the increase in duration of flooding, the time S. variegata needed to start recovery growth increased. However, all flooded plants could recover in one week when flooding was ended. Under the condition of the same flooding duration, the plants subjected to belowground submergence and 2m water depth submergence had higher RGR than the control plants. After 40d, 60d and 90d inundation, The RGR of the plants submerged with 2m water depth were 57.8%, 143.4%, 130.4% higher than that of the control plants, respectively. In the experiment, it was shown that the growth of S. variegata varied with flooding intensity. The aboveground biomass of the plants subjected to belowground submergence was not significantly different from that of the control plants, but the plants submerged with 2m water depth had lower aboveground biomass than the control plants. After 2 months growth following flooding termination, the variation pattern in aboveground biomass among plants subjected to treatments of different flooding depths was similar to that of plants when flooding was just ended. The research demonstrates that S. variegata has high survival and good recovery growth after long-term flooding. It shows good tolerance to flooding and could be taken as a candidate species in the revegetation of water-level-fluctuation zone in Three Gorge reservoir region.