Abstract: Peat is a kind of important organic mineral resources. The research and development on peat has made a great progress in agriculture, animal husbandry, industry, gardening, environment, medicine and other fields. There are abundant peat resources in Liaoning Province, with a total reserves of 35 362 700 tons, mostly in herbaceous nutritional type, formed in Middle and Late Holocene. The genetic types are gully, valley, estuary and seacoast. The peat is rich in Eastern Liaoning mountainous area, abundant in Southern Liaoning coastal hills area, and less in Western Liaoning mountainous area and Central Liaoning plain area. The controlling factors of the peat distribution are discussed on the neotectonic movement, geomorphology, hydrology, marine transgression and regression, and climate.