Abstract: Phosphorus is rich in the soil but its available P scarce. It is very important to develop special tree genotypes to exploit the phosphorus in the soil efficiently. This paper reviewed the research on nutrition genetics and its genetic improvement of forest tree, including genotype differences of exploiting soil phosphorus, mechanism of adaptation to low phosphorus stress, genetic control of phosphorus efficiency, screen and selection of germplasm for low phosphorus tolerance. In view of the current resource and environment problem, the authors suggest that phosphorus efficiency should be considered as an important breeding objective. It is necessary to conduct genetic improvement of nutrition utilization efficiency (NUE) of main forest trees to realize the sustainable development of plantation with low supply and high output.