[Objective] The paper aimed to explore the difference of physiological mechanism of different stay-green maizes under drought resistance, which can provide a theoretical basis for promoting the application of crop stay-green traits and guiding the improvement work of crop drought resistance.[Methods] Pot experiment was conducted to investigate the physiological and biochemical indexes related to drought resistance and leaf senescence characteristics of stay green maize inbred lines Qi319 and early senescence maize inbred lines B73 after 1 week of flowering. And the normal irrigation water was made as control.[Results] Under drought stress, the activities of peroxidase(POD) and superoxide dismutase(SOD) of green maize Qi319 were higher than those of early aging maize B73, and Qi319. The two indices of Qi319 increased by 32.53% and 18.84%, B73 increased 12.79% and 10.82% as compared with the control respectively. The leaf MDA contents of the two maizes inbred lines increased significantly compared with the control by drought stress. The MDA content of Qi319 increased by 14.23% while that of B73 increased by 37.43%. Compared with the control, the proline content in the leaves of Qi319 increased by 57.95%, and that of B73 increased by 43.67%. Under drought stress, Qi319 had a relatively high net photosynthesis photosynthetic rate(P_n), stomatal conductance(G_s) and transpiration rate(T_r). The number of green leaves, green leaf area, leaf green retention and photosynthetic pigment content of stay-green maize Qi319 were higher than those of early senescence maize B73, while the activities of protease and chlorophyll hydrolase of Qi319 were all lower than those of early senescent maize.[Conclusion] Under drought stress the stay-green maize Qi319 had strong drought resistance.