Objectives: The Hefei Basin is situated to the north of the Dabie Orogen and west of the Tan-Lu Fault Zone. Its evolution is closely related to the two major tectonic belts. However, depositional time and provenance of Mesoizoic strata in the basin remain controversial. This work aims at constraining ages of the Mesozoic strata and their provenance. Methods: LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating on detrital zircon was conducted on Mesozoic sandstones in the Hefei Basin. Their youngest ages and age spectra were used to constrtain depositional time and provenance of the dated sandstones from different formations. The zircon dating was also made on volcanic rocks to determine their eruption time. Results: The dating results show that the Mesozoic clastic rocks in the southern Hefei Basin include the Lower Jurassic Fanghushan Formation, the Middle Jurassic Yuantongshan or Sanjianpu formation, the Lower Cretaceous Fenghuangtai or Zhougongshan Formation and Upper Cretaceous Qijiaqiao Formation from the bottom to the top, with the absence of Upper Jurassic strata. The exposed Cretaceous clastic rocks in the eastern Hefei Basin are the Lower Cretaceous Zhuxiang or Xiangdaopu Formatiom and Upper Cretaceous Zhangqiao Formation from the bottom to the top. The zircon data indicate eruption time of Early Cretaceous (130~120 Ma) for the exposed Maotanchang or Baidafeng volcanic rocks in the basin. Conclusions: The detrital zircon demonstrate that the Lower to Middle Jurassic and Cretaceous clastic rocks in the southern basin were derived from the Dabie Orogen as a result of the postorogenic exhumation and late-orogenic extensional uplifting respectively. The provenance of the Cretaceous clastic rocks in the eastern Hefei Basin is the Zhangbaling uplifting belt which is a rising wall of the Tan-Lu Fault Zone during its normal faulting.