This study analyzed the time series curves of enhanced vegetation index (EVI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and land surface water index (LSWI) of paddy rice areas in Hunan Province based on MODIS data. Single and double-season paddy rice was distinguished with the classification and regression tree(CART) decision tree method. The inflection method and the dynamic threshold method were applied to retrieve the growth periods of double-season paddy rice. The result shows that double-season paddy rice of Hunan Province was mainly distributed in the Dongting Lake area, the plain area surrounding the main stream and tributaries of the section between Hengyang and Zhuzhou of the Xiangjiang River, and the panhandle between the Yangming Mountains and the Nanling Mountains in Yongzhou and Chenzhou. Single-season paddy rice was mainly distributed on the periphery of the zones planted with double-season paddy rice and the valleys in Xiangxi and Huaihua. The growth periods of double-season paddy rice planted in the southern part of the Dongting Lake area and the hilly areas in southern Hunan are earlier than other regions. The distribution of single/double-season paddy rice and their growth periods in the most part of Hunan Province were spatially un-contiguous and this pattern is relatively consistent across space. These findings can provide support for future study of the relationship between natural disasters that affect paddy rice and the risk of climate change in Hunan Province.