Abstract:[Objective] Wuyi rock tea is a kind of traditional brand high-quality oolong tea. However, its quality varies from region to region significantly. This regional difference is mainly attributed to two major factors. One is soil parent material that affects soil nutrient supply, and the other is climate that determines temperature, light intensity, humidity, etc. To date, the focus of this study is to find out the determinants of quality formation of Wuyi rock tea. The purpose of this study was to explore difference in mineral nutrition of Wuyi rock teas from different planting areas, so as to better understand contributions of the nutrients to the quality of Wuyi rock tea.[Method] In this study, tea leaf samples and soil samples were collected from 112 tea gardens in the Wuyi Mountain. The tea gardens were distributed in three planting areas, i.e. Zhengyan, Banyan and Zhou, producing teas, high, medium and low in quality, respectively. The tea leaf samples were analyzed for contents of 12 mineral elements(N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, Mo, Ni)and the soil samples were for 5 soil fertility parameters(pH, Alkaline nitrogen, Available phosphorus, Available potassium and Organic matter).[Result] Principal component analysis shows that the tea leaf samples varied evidently in content of mineral elements with the planting area. Random forest analysis shows that among all the mineral nutrients in the tea leaf samples tested, phosphorus, copper and nitrogen differed the most significantly from region to region. Furthermore, in terms of concentrations of the three elements the teas followed a decreasing order of Zhou tea > Banyan tea > Zhengyan tea, while in terms of tea quality, they followed an increasing order of Zhou tea < Banyan tea < Zhengyan tea, which indicates the lower the concentrations of phosphorus, copper and nitrogen, the higher the tea quality. Pearson correlation analysis shows that the 5 soil fertility parameters did not have much correlations with the three nutrient elements in the tea leaves, suggesting that contents of the nutrients in Wuyi rock tea are affected by comprehensive environmental factors, rather than solely determined by soil nutrient status.[Conclusion] To sum up, this study demonstrates that content of phosphorus, copper and nitrogen in tea leaves is somewhat negatively related to quality of Wuyi rock tea, which serve as reference for soil nutrient management of tea gardens.