Aquatic plants in lakeshore zone play an important role in maintaining the health of lake ecosystem. In order to understand the current status of aquatic plants in the lakeshore zone of Lake Erhai, this study investigated the aquatic plants quarterly in the lakeshore zone from 2020 to 2021. The results showed that there were 206 species of aquatic plants belonging to 56 families and 156 genera in the lakeshore zone of Lake Erhai, including 149 species of hygrophytes, 24 species of emergent plants, 21 species of submerged plants, 7 species of floating plants and 5 species of floating leaf plants. Among all these species, Cynodon dactylon, Zizania latifolia, Vallisneria natans and Trapa bispinosa, etc. were common species, Lonicera japonica, Elymus dahuricus, etc. were occasional species. From the distribution of floristic regions, the species in the lakeshore zone of Lake Erhai were mainly world distribution (83 species) and tropical distribution (55 species), accounting for 40.28% and 26.71% of the total species, respectively. In terms of plant communities, there were 18 main plant community types in the lakeshore zone of Lake Erhai, including 4 types of hyophytes communities, 3 types of emergent plant communities, 9 types of submerged plant communities and 2 types of floating leaf plant communities. Among all the communities, the main dominant communities were Cynodon dactylon communities, Zizania latifolia communities, Vallisneria natans communities and Trapa bispinosa communities. Compared with previous investigations, it was concluded that the diversity of aquatic plants in the lakeshore zone of Lake Erhai had been significantly improved in recent years. However, there are some problems such as the small area of lakeshore zone and the single type of emergent plant community. Therefore, the construction of lakeshore zone should be further strengthened to improve the habitats and increase species diversity.