High strength hydrogels open new possibilities in the fields of bioengineering and biomedical. In this paper, a highly efficient one-pot strategy was developed to prepare carboxymethyl xylan-g-poly (acrylic acid) (CMX-g-PAA) hydrogels with high compression strength, high elongation and high elasticity by using the metal coordination and the reinforcement of hydroxylate multi-walled carbon nanotubes (HCNT5). Prepared hydrogels were characterized by means of FTIR, XRD, SEM, rheological measurements as well as their swelling and mechanical properties. Results showed that the Fe3+-carboxyl coordination and HCNT5 imparted hydrogels with high strength and good rapid recovery properties, in which the maximum high compressive strength and elongation at break were achieved to 10.4 MPa and 1032%, and the shape of hydrogels almost returned to the original shape after the external force was removed after 30 cycles of compression. These hydrogels also exhibited Fe3+-triggered shape memory properties. Therefore, as-prepared hydrogels possessing high strength, rapid recovery and shape memory properties, could broaden access for application in intelligent toys, electronic skin, biosensing, and tissue engineering. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.