BackgroundC2H2 zinc finger proteins (C2H2-ZFPs), one of the largest transcription factors, play a variety of roles in plant development and growth as well as stress response. While, the evolutionary history and expression profile of the C2H2-ZFP genes inLarix kaempferi(LkZFPs) have not been reported so far.ResultsIn this study, the whole genome of theLkZFPswas identified and characterized, including physicochemical properties, phylogenetic relationships, conservative motifs, the promotercis-elements and Gene Ontology (GO) annotation. We identified 47LkZFPsand divided them into four subfamilies based on phylogenetic analysis and conserved motifs. Subcellular localization prediction showed that most of theLkZFPswere located in the nucleus. Promotercis-element analysis suggested that theLkZFPsmay be involved in the regulation of stress responses. Moreover, Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) results showed that Q-typeLkZFPgenes were involved in the response to abiotic stress, such as salt, drought and hormone stresses. Subcellular localization results showed thatLkZFP7andLkZFP37were located in the nucleus,LkZFP32was located in both cytoplasm and nucleus.ConclusionThe identification and functional analysis ofLkZFPssuggested that someLkZFPgenes might play important roles in coping with both biological and abiotic stresses. These results could further increase understanding of the function of theLkZFPs, and provide some research direction and theoretical support.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-023-04298-5.