The Eu3+-doped La2Zr207 phosphor with rod-like morphology was successfully synthesized by conventional solid state reaction and hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction patterns, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence spectra were employed to charac- terize its structure and morphology as well as luminescent properties. The results indicated that the red-emitting phosphor La2Zr207:Eu3+ had well crystallized and belonged to the cubic structure with space group of Fd3m. The as-obtained product mainly appeared as straight nanorods with an average diameter of 47 nm and length of 50-700 nm. The pos- sible growth mechanism was also discussed. It was found that under blue excitation with a wavelength of 466 nm, the La2Zr2OT:Eu3+ phosphor exhibited a characteristic red emission at 616 nm that was attributed to the hypersensitive 5D0--*TF2 electric dipole transition of Eu3+ ions. Meanwhile, it was more interesting to note that the emission of 5D1--*TFj (J=0, 1, 2) transitions and the splitting patterns of 5D0---+TFJ (J--l, 2, 4) transitions of Eu3+ ions can be observed in the luminescent spectra of La2Zr207:Eu3+. It was demonstrated that Eu3+ preferred to occupy a low symmetry site.