[Objective] The aim of this study is to investigate the soil water characteristic curve and its influence factors under different vegetation cover in karst area in order to provide the theoretical basis for the quantitative analysis of soil water movement in karst mountain area.[Methods] Based on field survey and laboratory analysis, this paper studied the soil water characteristic curve of four different vegetation type(wasteland, grassland, bushwood and forest-shrub) in typical karst mountains in Guohua, Pinguo, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.[Results] All the three models including van Genuchten, Brooks-Corey and Gardner fitted the data well, with correlation coefficients were >0.93 and the sum of squared residuals were <0.0005. Among the three models, van Genuchten model was the best fitted model for calculating the soil water characteristic curve. The soil water-holding capacity showed a significant negative relationship with the positive succession of vegetation, saturated water content, non-capillary porosity and particle content, while it showed an extremely significant positive relationship with soil bulk density, clay content, capillary porosity, initial water content and capillary moisture. Under different vegetation types and the same suction, the soil water-holding ability was great at the surface and deep layer soil but poor in the middle layer soil. Under different soil depth and the same suction, the soil water-holding ability in wasteland was the greatest, while it was the poorest in forest-shrub.[Conclusion] Under different soil depth and the same suction, the soil water-holding ability decreases with the positive succession of the vegetation. The dominant factor that influences the soil water characteristic curve in the study area is soil capillary porosity.