The soil plant system is a very important subsystem of the soil plant atmosphere continuum (SPAC). Plant root water uptake is an important part of the research on water transforming patterns in SPAC. Concerning the impact of root water uptake from the soil, the current root water uptake models are discussed by three categories: theoretical, semi theoretical and semi empirical, empirical models. It is pointed out that the future research focus will be put on the mechanism research of root water uptake, the modification and improvement of the existing root water uptake models, the simplification of model parameters, and the application in practice.