Abstract:This paper deals with the potassium and K-bearing minerals in the soils in South of China. Results show that the contents and types of soil K-bearing minerals were influenced by parent materials and soil development, the K-bearing minerals in the soils developed from granite increased with the particle size (with the exception of >50μ fractions), but a contrary result was found for the soil derived from sediment rock. Soil nonexchangeable was well correlated with the contents of micaceous minerals (r=0.669), and exchangeable K was significantly correlated with soil CEC(r=0.808**). Different particle size fractions made different contribution to the total potassium in the soil. Total potassium was mainly concentrated in the fractions of 10-50μ and >50μ for the soils derived from granite, and in the fractions of <2μ and 2-10μ for those derived from sediment rock.