Vegetation is an important part of the natural environment and has resistance effects on overland runoff, which can effectively reduce hydraulic erosion. The effect of vegetation stem diameter and slope gradient on flow resistance is thus worthy of further study. The influence of three different slope gradients (s), three vegetation stem diameters (d) and 12 levels of unit discharge (q) on the flow resistance of a slope was simulated to systematically study the effect of vegetation stem diameter and slope gradient on overland runoff. The diameter of the vegetation stem and the slope gradient were found to have a significant resistance effect on overland runoff. Under the same slope gradient, the Darcy-Weisbach resistance factor (f) increased with an increase in the vegetation stem diameter. Under experimental conditions, the rate of change of f was analysed by linear regression, and as d increased by 1 mm, f increased by an average of 49.9%. For a given vegetation stem diameter and vegetation distribution pattern, the greater the slope gradient, the smaller the value of f, and as S increased by 1.0%, f decreased by an average of 24.5%. These results are important to optimize the slope vegetation distribution in farmland conservation.