To explore the responses of carbon storage to different vegetation restoration patterns in a rocky desertification ecosystem in Tiandeng County, Guangxi, we selected pure plantations of Dendrocalamus minor (D) and Zenia insignis (Z), a mixed plantation (M) of Z, Buerretiodendron hsienmu (B) and Acrocarpus fraxinifolius (A), as well as their corresponding closed forests (D_CK, Z_CK, M_CK) with same ages to determine the carbon storage. Our results showed that the carbon storages of pure and mixed plantations were significantly higher than those of the corresponding closed forests, (P < 0.05), since the carbon storages of D, Z, and M plantations were 67.75, 66.56, and 121.20 t/hm², seperately, whereas those of D_CK, Z_CK, and M_CK were only 49.75, 52.89, and 60.86 t/hm², respectively. The orders of carbon storage in the layers of tree, ground cover, and soil varied with the ecosystem types. For example, in M:tree layer > soil layer > ground cover layer; in D and Z plantations:soil layer > tree layer > ground cover layer; in D_CK, Z_CK, and M_CK: soil layer > ground cover layer > tree layer. Additionally, the annual average carbon storage of the tree layer was significantly different among M, D, and Z (P < 0.05). However, the enclosed forests did not form arboreal forest and the carbon storage of vegetation increased with enclosure time (M_CK > Z_CK > D_CK). This study suggests that different vegetation restoration patterns can significantly affect the carbon storage and its allocation in the moderate rocky desertification ecosystem, and afforestation is a more effective way to improve the vegetation restoration, form arboreal forests, and further increase the ecosystem carbon storage, compared to the closed forest.