Phosphorus nutrient characteristics of different maize inbred lines to low-P stress were studied at stages of seedling,steming, earing, silking under pot culture. In the periods of seedling and steming, P uptake efficiency was the main contributor to P tolerance, and the relative P content in P-tolerant genotypes, 99180 and 99239 were higher than that in sensitive genotype, 99152. At earing stage, P-tolerant genotypes, compared to P-sensitive ones, had higher accumulation of P in upper leaves. When came to the silking stage, P uptake and redistribution efficiency of P-tolerant genotypes were higher than those in 99152. The results also suggested that there are different mechanisms of P nutrient uptake and distribution in different P-tolerant genotypes. Inbred line 99239, according to the investigation, was considered as an efficient stock in the P-uptake while 99180 fallen to the efficient stock of P redistribution.