The restoration of submerged vegetation plays an important role in the ecological restoration of eutrophic urban lakes, and the study on the habitat requirements of submerged vegetation is essential for their effective restoration. In order to investigate the habitat requirements of submerged macrophytes in subtropical urban lakes in China, three typical urban lakes in Wuhan, namely Lake Donghu, Lake Nanhu and Lake Shahu, were selected for field investigation in this study.Vallisneria denseserrulataMakino, a dominant species, was selected as the research object. The study measured 16 indicators ofV. denseserrulataMakino including medium to long-term growth (e.g. biomass), short-term physiology (e.g. carbohydrate content), and instantaneous fluorescence, along with 17 indicators related to water and sediment properties. By integrating generalized additive models (GAM) and plant trait network analysis (PTN), the study comprehensively assessed the habitat requirements ofV. denseserrulataMakino in urban lakes of Wuhan. Results showed that: (1) 53.5% of the 43 sampled sites in three urban lakes were mildly eutrophic, while 46.5% were moderately eutrophic. (2) Environmental factors significantly affected the biomass accumulation ofV. denseserrulataMakino. Conditions such as a water depth of approximately 1.1 m and a total nitrogen concentration of around 1 mg/L were most favorable for the growth and biomass accumulation ofV. denseserrulataMakino. Total nitrogen in the sediment ranging from 0.16 to 2.50 mg/kg and total organic carbon (TOC) in the sediment from 0.19% to 13.70% couldpromote biomass increase. (3) The N∶P ratio (average 3) inV. denseserrulataMakino tissue indicated that its growth was limited by nitrogen. GAM analysis showed that the growth ofV. denseserrulataMakino was minimally affected by total phosphorus in the water and sediment, and that nitrogen sources in urban lakes were more important toV. denseserrulataMakino than phosphorus sources. (4) Higher nutrient levels in the water often stimulated the short-term carbon and nitrogen metabolism ofV. denseserrulataMakino, but inhibited its long-term growth. The negative effect of sediment organic carbon content on the growth and reproduction ofV. denseserrulataMakino was relatively weak. The research suggests that in the future, when applyingV. denseserrulataMakino for the restoration of subtropical urban lakes, there should be a greater focus on controlling the aquatic habitat conditions, especially nitrogen sources, in order to maximize its ecological benefits and more effectively promote lake ecological restoration.