Abstract. Biodegradation of pyrene and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene in reed rhizosphere soil was carried out in a small-scale wetland simulator using reed as well as microorganisms immobilized on cinder beads under natural environmental conditions. The results show that the stability of the introduced strains was enhanced upon immobilization and that the depletion of pyrene and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene after 40 days was 68.4%, and 87.9%, respectively, whereas reeds or immobilized cells alone exhibited relatively poor degradation of PAHs in the same time period. This showed that plant and microbes promoted the degradation of pyrene and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene. The results of this study show that PAH-degrading bacteria associated with plants could enhance pollutant removal, and this offers opportunities to facilitate high molecular weight (HMW) PAHs plant-microbe remediation in wetlands.