Traits are the basis of plant individuals, so it is particularly important to reveal the change mechanism of individuals from the perspective of traits. In this study, we investigated the effects of different trampling intensities on functional traits of Artemisia scoparia, a dominant herb in semiarid sandy grassland. The results showed that: (1) trampling significantly reduced the height of vegetation in the early growing season at the community level, but there was no significant difference in plant height of A. scoparia among different trampling intensities. (2) The leaf length and width of A. scoparia increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of trampling intensity, and reached the highest values under moderate grazing trampling. Stem diameter increased with the increase of trampling intensity. There were no significant differences in root and whole plant traits with the increase of trampling intensity. (3) The leaf length, leaf width and leaf area decreased with the increase of leaf thickness. There was a significant positive correlation between the leaves and the number of firstorder root branches and the biomass of leaf, stem and root. Trampling intensity had no significant effect on the phenotypic traits except stem diameter. Asymmetrical changes of different phenotypic traits were used to tradeoff during the growth and development of A. scoparia. The increase of trampling intensity had little effect on the biomass accumulation of roots, stems and leaves in the early growing season, indicating that A. scoparia had strong resistance to grazing trampling in the early growing season. These results have important guiding significance for selection of grazing pressure and species conservation in semiarid sandy land in the early growing season.