Selective area growth of GaN rods by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy has attracted great interest due to its novel applications in optoelectronic and photonics. In this work, we will present the dependence of GaN rod morphology on various growth parameters i.e. growth temperature, H-2/N-2 carrier gas concentration, V/III ratio, total carrier gas flow and reactor pressure. It is found that higher growth temperature helps to increase the aspect ratio of the rods, but reduces the height homogeneity. Furthermore, H-2/N-2 carrier gas concentration is found to be a critical factor to obtain vertical rod growth. Pure nitrogen carrier gas leads to irregular growth of GaN structure, while an increase of hydrogen carrier gas results in vertical GaN rod growth. Higher hydrogen carrier gas concentration also reduces the diameter and enhances the aspect of the GaN rods. Besides, increase of V/III ratio causes reduction of the aspect ratio of N-polar GaN rods, which could be explained by the relatively lower growth rate on (000-1) N-polar top surface when supplying more ammonia. In addition, an increase of the total carrier gas flow leads to a decrease in the diameter and the average volume of GaN rods. These phenomena are tentatively explained by the change of partial pressure of the source materials and boundary layer thickness in the reactor. Finally, it is shown that the average volume of the N-polar GaN rods keeps a similar value for a reactor pressure P-R of 66 and 125 mbar, while an incomplete filling of the pattern opening is observed with P-R of 250 mbar. Room temperature photoluminescence spectrum of the rods is also briefly discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.