To explore the effects of different restoration years on vegetation community changes and individual plant growth in open-pit coal mines, and further strengthen ecological environmental protection and ecological restoration measures. Taking the plant community of Inner Mongolia alpine open-pit coal mine during the four years of restoration (2018-2021) as the research object, we adopted the quadrat survey method to investigate the plant community in the sample site. The herb quadrat (1 m×1 m) and shrub quadrat (5 m×5 m) were set to record the plant species composition, height and coverage. Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Simpon index, Pielou evenness index and species importance were calculated. The change characteristics of plant community and nutrient uptake of dominant plants in different restoration years were discussed to provide scientific basis for artificial vegetation restoration in mining areas. The results showed that: (1) With the increase of restoration years, the total species number, biomass and diversity index increased significantly. Total species number was increased from 16 to 31 which from the first year to the fourth year after rehabilitation. This due to the non-planted species increased from 6 to 19. Especially the species number was significantly increased on the second year, then steady on third and fourth year. It demonstrated that second year was key year for plant rehabilitation. (2) The dominant species were Gramineae plants Elymus dahuricus, Bromus inermis; Leguminosae plants Medicago sativa, Melilotus officinalis, Astragalus adsurgens, Caragana sinica; Artemisia sieversiana (Compositae); Brassica napus (Brassicaceae) and Hippophae rhamnoides (Elaeagnaceae) in study sites. (3) Compared the nutrient (N, P and K) uptake among dominated species, there were higher nutrient contents of Legumes and compositae than Gramineae plants in herbaceous plants. The N content and P contents in the stem of H. rhamnoides were significantly higher than that of Caragana sinica in shrub dominant species. According to the study, in the initial stage of vegetation restoration (4 years), legumes and compositae were the preferred pioneer species of herbaceous plants, while H. rhamnoides is the preferred species of shrubs.