Plant macrofossils are an important component of peat, which are the incompletely decomposed peat-forming plants under anaerobic condition, mainly including roots, stems, leaves, rhizomes, fruits, seeds, spores and pollen. Plant macrofossils are visible to the naked eye with a median size range of 0.5-2 mm. Plant macrofossils can usually be observed using a low power (*10-*40) stereoscopic microscope and at high magnifications (*100-*400) under a light microscope. At present, the universal analysis method of plant macrofossil is QLCMA (quadrat and leaf count macrofossil analysis) method that proposed by Barber in 1994. The preparation of peat for plant macrofossil analyses is relatively simple, comparing to other biological indicators. There are several ways to express the data of plant macrofossils, and data representations should be adopted according to the purpose. The plant macrofossils are the true record of vegetation succession of wetlands. Peat, as the special product of wetlands, is a natural archive for recording the past global change and playing an increasing important role in palaeovegetation and palaeoenvironment researches. Compared to pollen, plant macrofossils have several obvious advantages. First, many of the macrofossils can be identified to species level, ensuring more accurate palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Second, due to their weight and/or size, plant macrofossils can deposit in situ, so they can effectively represent local vegetation. Finally, plant macrofossils can be obtained from the peatlands that produce no or very small amounts pollen. Due to these advantages, plant macrofossil in peatlands has been used as an important biological proxy for the reconstruction ofpalaeovegetation. Because the vegetation of wetland is sensitive to environmental and climate changes, plant macrofossil can also serve as an indicator of environmental changes during the Holocene. It can be used to reconstruct the surface water level of peatlands during the development process; to reveal the spatial and temporal variation characteristics of warm/cold and wet/dry conditions in a region; to trace the development pathways of peatlands; to provide basis for peatlands conservation management and restoration. However, the proxy also has its shortcomings. Due to the selective preservation of plants, the above-ground parts of herbaceous plants are not easy to preserve that makes the identified plant communities are not consistent with the actual vegetation communities. In addition, because of the different degree of decomposition of plants, so the identification is difficult for the serious decomposed plant residues. Taking these potential problems together, the reconstruction of palaeovegetation and palaeoenvironment using plant macrofossils should be carefully interpreted. It is better to combine with other proxies, such as pollen and testate amoebae. This paper provides an overview of research methods and its application in palaeovegetation, palaeoenvironment and the management and restoration of plant macrofossil in peatlands. By analyzing the research status of the plant macrofossil at home and abroad, we proposed the existing problems of plant macrofossils research at present and prospected the research direction in the future.