Carbon dots (carbon dots，CDs)，as a new type of fluorescent nanomaterials，have been widely used in environmental monitoring，biomedicine，physical chemistry and other fields due to its excellent fluorescence performance，good biocompatibility and low toxicity. In recent years，biomass derived CDs have attracted extensive attention from researchers due to its low cost，wide source and reproducibility. In addition，since the biomass generally contain abundant carbohydrates，flavones and other natural ingredients， various functional groups could be retained or integrated to obtain green CDs with excellent fluorescence performance without any addi⁃ tional modification compared with chemically derived CDs，which further attracted researchers to explore biomass derived CDs. This pa⁃ per reviewed the main sources of green CDs，green synthesis methods，and their relevant applications. At the same time，the future re⁃ search priorities and development directions in this field were also outlined.