Background: Suitable planting density has an important influence on the high yield and quality of medicinal plants. How to minimize the development of its rhizome while improving the yield and quality of its taproots is one of the scientific issues that are urgent to be solved in the development of the cultivated licorice at present. Methods: In the present study, G. uralensis was used as the experimental material, in an effort to find a reasonable cultivation management measure that may limit the development of rhizomes of licorice but increase the yield and quality of taproots, three planting density treatments were set to explore the effects of density on the growth of the licorice and the taproots yield and quality of its taproot and rhizomes. Result: The results showed that with the increase in cultivation density, rhizome development and growth of G. uralensis were significantly suppressed and their clonal spreading potential was significantly reduced. The development of the rhizome was significantly inhibited with the increasing of cultivation density. It was observed that using the medium-density treatment gave the maximum mean value of the total yield and the total amount of medicinally active components (glycyrrhizic acid, glycyrrhizin and flavonoids) of licorice taproots every square kilometre among the three treatments.In summary, the best planting treatment for G. uralensis was medium-density.