The experimental materials were selected from the coastal sandy land of Yantai. According to the stolon length, the treatments of mild (1/3 stem length), moderate (2/3 stem length), severe (half bury) and full bury were carried out. The stolon length, shoot height, advent root length, and soluble sugar, starch and cellulose contents were measured under different sand burial treatments for 20days, in order to explore the role of carbohydrate change and transformation in sand burial tolerance of L. Formosa. The results showed that the length of stolons in mild, moderate half-buried and full buried L. monophylla was significantly longer than that in the control, and a large number of adventitic roots were generated in the stolons buried in sand. At the same time, the content of soluble sugar and starch increased and the content of cellulose decreased, especially in the fastest growing stolon top (e.g., slightly half-buried). The soluble sugar was lower in the stem, starch increased the most, and cellulose increased the least. However, stolons with heavy half-bury and full bury had less growth, more cellulose content and less starch content in stems. Studies have shown that sand burial is a kind of stress, which damages leaves and disturbs the balance of carbohydrate metabolism. However, it is also a stress signal to produce adaptive responses in plants. It can accelerate the rapid growth of stolons to get rid of sand by accelerating the transformation of carbohydrates, decomposition of cellulose, and increasing the content of starch and soluble sugar to provide energy and nutrients for the apical growth. At the same time, more soluble sugar and starch were produced to provide energy for stolon adventitium root growth by decomposing cellulose. Therefore, the carbohydrate conversion in stolons after sand burial is the energy source for rapid growth and escape from sand burial and plays an important role in the adaptation to sand burial. The adaptive response of L. monophylla to sand burial showed that it had phenotypic plasticity, which was the key to maintain rapid stolon top growth, advent root formation, carbohydrate transformation and high resistance to sand burial.