The anisotropic nanostructures have demonstrated novel physical features and promising utility in nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, and electrochemical energy storage. Among them, aluminum nitride (AlN), is an attractive III-V group semiconductor because of its potential applications in UV devices. More structurally complex one-dimensional (1D) AlN nanostructures are thus great demand because the shapes of nanomaterials evidently affect their chemical and physical properties. By controlling the reaction parameters of physical vapor transport (PVT) process, we have performed a detailed investigation on the synthesis of AlN nanostructures. Moreover, we found that the growth of diverse AlN nanowires (NWs) and nanohelixes with different morphological features can be well explained by the helical growth model. Two ideal platforms, including individual AlN microhelix and AlN helices with complex-defect of (V_NAl_i) syntheiszed by adjusting the reaction parameters, were utilized to investigate the mechanical and luminescence properties of AlN helices, respectively. We have utilized in situ tensile-bending test to investigate the mechanical properties of individual AlN helix. We show that the morphologies serves the key role in determining the mechanical featutres of the AlN nanostrictures. The detailed optical measurement exhibited a typical afterglow feature after UV irradiation in AlN helices with complex-defect of (V_NAl_i).