To reveal the interspecific association characteristics and community stability patterns of shrub-herb communities along the altitudinal gradient in the dry-hot valley region of the Lancang River Basin, and to provide a basis for the selection of native shrub and herb species and community configuration in ecological restoration, shrub-herb communities at four altitudinal gradients, namely ［2 100,2 250), ［2 250,2 400), ［2 400,2 550), and ［2 550,2 700］ m, were investigated, the overall interspecific associations of the communities were tested by using the variance ratio and statistic W, the interspecific associations and correlations between dominant species were quantified by using the χ² statistic of 2×2 contingency table and Pearson correlation analysis, and the community stability was evaluated by using the improved M. Godron contribution law method. The results show that a total of 60 species of vascular plants of shrub-herb communities belonging to 52 genera of 33 families are recorded in the research area, including 19 species in 17 genera of 12 families in the shrub layer, and 41 species in 36 genera of 23 families in the herb layer. With the increase of altitude, the dominant species in the shrub layer shift from Vitex negundo var. microphylla Hand.-Mazz. to Caryopteris forrestii Diels and Ceratostigma minus Stapf ex Prain, while the dominant species in the herb layer shift from Arthraxon hispidus (Thunb.) Makino to Selaginella sanguinolenta (Linn.) Spring and Lolium perenne Linn. The overall interspecific associations of both the shrub layer and the herb layer are non-significant positive associations (the variance ratios are 1.12 and 1.82, respectively). The interspecific association analysis results show that in the shrub layer, except for the ［2 250,2 400) m altitudinal gradient where nonassociated species pairs are predominant, negatively associated species pairs are more abundant in the other altitudinal gradients; in the herb layer, non-associated and negatively associated species pairs are predominant at each altitudinal gradient. The Pearson correlation analysis results show that the positively correlated species pairs in the shrub layer dominate at the ［2 400,2 550) m altitudinal gradient, while those in the herb layer are the most numerous at the ［2 250,2 400) m altitudinal gradient, and the numbers of positively and negatively correlated species pairs are relatively close at the other altitudinal gradients. The stability of the herb layer is higher than that of the shrub layer at all four altitudinal gradients, and the overall stability of the shrub-herb communities is high at both ends and low in the middle with the increase of altitude. It is concluded that the shrub-herb communities in the dry-hot valley region of the Lancang River Basin exhibit characteristics of dominant species replacement, overall non-significant positive associations, and segmented stability variation along the altitudinal gradient, and the ［2 250,2 550) m altitudinal range represents a relatively weak area of community stability and should be given priority in ecological restoration and vegetation reconstruction.