In order to understand the mechanism of water uptake by vegetation, we propose a vegetation-water model which represents nonlocal effect via nonlocal delay in this paper. By mathematical analysis, the condition of producing steady pattern is obtained. Furthermore, the amplitude equation which determines the type of Turing pattern is obtained by nonlinear analysis method. The corresponding vegetation pattern and evolution process under different intensity of nonlocal effect in roots of vegetation are given by numerical simulations. There is a positive correlation between the intensity of nonlocal effect and vegetation density, that is, the vegetation density increases with the increase of the intensity of nonlocal effect. Numerical simulation shows that as intensity of nonlocal effect increased, the isolation degree of vegetation pattern increases which indicates that the robustness of the ecosystem decreases. Besides, the results reveal that with the water diffusion coeffificient increase, the vegetation pattern transitions: stripe pattern→mix pattern→spot pattern emerge which predicts transitions from stripe vegetation to bare soil. Our results show the effects of intensity of nonlocal effect and diffusion coeffificient on vegetation distribution, which provides theoretical basis for the study of vegetation.