Species with low cavitation resistance appear to be threatened by xylem cavitation intrinsically. However, strategic priority of low cavitation resistance has poorly addressed. Here, the hypothesis was investigated that low cavitation resistance is compensated by the performance of recovery from xylem cavitation and other functional/structural traits, using saplings of seven temperate woody species. Cavitation resistance, which is xylem water potential inducing 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity (Ψ50), was varied among species. The extent of recovery of hydraulic conductivity (Kh) from 50%-decreased Kh was positively correlated with Ψ50 across species, indicating that species with low cavitation resistance showed the high recovery performance of xylem. Wood density was negatively correlated with Ψ50 and xylem recovery performance. Ψ50 was correlated positively with photosynthetic capacity. These results suggest that functional trade-off between cavitation resistance and recovery performance would be mediated by wood density related to cavitation-resistant mechanical reinforcement and water storage capacitance. The wood density, which appears to be a key feature of water conducting strategy, may interact with photosynthetic capacity through xylem safety for water transport and growth performance related to allocation of photosynthetic products.