Abstract: To explore the leaf color mechanism of Acer negundo ‘Aurea’, and to provide theoretical basis for the leaf color mechanism and cultivation of golden leaf plants, the golden re-green and green leaves of A. negundo ‘Aurea’ were used as materials, the leaf color parameters, pigment content and anatomy structure of three leaf types were measured and compared. The results showed that the leaf color parameters L^*, a^*, b^* of the golden leaves were significantly higher than re-green leaves and CK（P＜0.01）. The leaf color parameters of A. negundo ‘Aurea’ showed a downward trend during the process of re-greening. The chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and, carotenoid content of the golden leaves were significantly lower than re-green leaves and CK, ω（carotenoid）/ω（total chlorophyll） was 0.64, which was significantly higher than re-green leaves and CK（P＜0.01）, and pigment content of the golden leaves increased during the process of re-green. The cross-section structure of the three types leaves were different in the thickness, the ratio and arrangement of tissue. The thickness of golden leaves was 124.51 μm, which was significantly lower than that of CK（P＜0.05）. The palisade tissue thickness of 31.26 μm and the palisade/spongy ratio of 0.45 in the golden leaves were significantly lower than other two types of leaves（P＜0.01）, the palisade tissue and spongy tissue were arranged irregularly and disorderly, while the other two leaf types were arranged regularly and orderly; The chloroplast length and width were 3.42 μm and 1.27 μm respectively, which were significantly smaller than the re-green leaves and CK（P＜0.01）, the chloroplast volume was small and incomplete, lacking thylakoid stacks. The high ω（carotenoid）/ω（total chlorophyll）, thinner palisade tissue, lower palisade/spongy ratio and lack of stacking of thylakoid in chloroplasts were the reasons for the golden color leaves of A. negundo ‘Aurea’.