a b s t r a c tIllegal dumping of phenol-concentrated industrial wastewater in a residential area poses serious health risks to the community in Thailand. Thus, a low-cost and easily implementable treatment technique that the affected community can perform is greatly beneficial. Here, we evaluated the enhanced phenol-degradation kinetics using a rhizomicrobial-augmented mature vetiver root system on a floating platform (with and without aeration) in comparison to a previously published study of a young vetiver root system. The mature vetiver root was covered with a biofilm of phenol-degrading rhizomicrobes including bacteria (Enterobacter spp., Pseudomonas spp., Rhodococcus spp., and Acinetobacter spp.) and fungi (Candida spp., Rhizopus spp., Aspergillus spp., and Fusarium spp.). Phenol (500 mg L -1 ) was degraded to 1 mg L -1 in 249 h using rhizomicrobial-augmented mature vetiver with aeration. Using young vetiver plantlets with aeration, this occurred in 675 h, and using rhizomicrobial-augmented mature vetiver without aeration, this occurred in 766 h. The findings suggest that, in addition to augmented rhizomicrobes, vetiver maturity and aeration substantially contribute to the enhancement. The vetiver maturity increased the root biomass, which releases more peroxidase for accelerating phenol transformation, and enhanced the superoxide dismutase activity, which decreases the side effects of phenol detoxification. Aeration enhanced the peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity in the vetiver and augmented rhizomicrobes to accelerate the phenol polymerization to non-toxic by-products.