Radially oriented metal oxide hierarchical architectures assembled by one-dimensional (1D) nanobuilding blocks are highly desirable for achieving high performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their strong coupling effect of nanostructure engineering. Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of three kinds of such architectures composed of tailorable V2O5 subunits from nanoribbons and their assembly along the side to curled wheat-leaf-like morphology. The formation process has also been proposed. Importantly, the as-obtained hierarchical architectures have the advantages of efficient ions/electrons transport and durable structure. As predicted, the resultant sample, when served as cathode materials for LIBs, delivers a high initial specific capacity of 285 mAh/g, which is maintained 157 mAh/g at 10 C. Moreover, a satisfied cycle stability is also attained with just 0.24% capacity loss per cycle over 100 cycles. The present work highlights the importance of radially oriented metal oxide hierarchical architectures in enhancing LIBs performance. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.