## 3 Results and Discussion
### Effect of Different Treatments on the Plant Biomass and Growth  
In this study, the plants vegetated in the bacterial-augmented wetlands (T3 and T3*) produced fresher and more dried biomass when compared with the plants vegetated in the treatments without a bacterial augmentation (T1 and T1*) (Table 3). This suggested that the bacteria possessed beneficial activities that might have helped the plants to grow well in the presence of contaminants. The plant growth-promoting activities of the microbes enabled the plants to amend their stress and improve their growth [26]. More shoot growth was observed in the CWs when compared with the FTWs; however, more root growth was observed in the FTWs compared with the CWs (Table 4 and Figure 8). More root growth in  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Treatment**} & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Time (Days)**} \\ \cline{2-9}  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**0**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**20**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**40**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**60**} \\ \hline  & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Colony-Forming Units (10\({}^{7}\) CFU mL\({}^{-1}\) water)**} \\ \hline  & **CWs** & **FTWs** & **CWs** & **FTWs** & **CWs** & **FTWs** & **CWs** & **FTWs** \\ \hline T2/T2* & 8.21 (2.78) & 8.28 (2.32) & 7.62 (2.50) & 7.55 (2.58) & 5.95 (2.65) & 6.12 (2.62) & 5.08 (2.28) & 5.25 (2.35) \\ \hline T3/T3* & 7.72 (2.52) & 8.27 (2.42) & 7.53 (2.84) & 7.65 (2.56) & 7.23 (2.74) & 6.57 (2.35) & 6.29 (2.35) & 5.17 (1.92) \\ \hline  & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Colony-Forming Units (10\({}^{7}\) CFU \(\mathbf{g}^{-1}\) root)**} \\ \hline T2/T2* & – & – & 3.68 (0.58) & 3.65 (0.57) & 4.96 (0.68) & 4.93 (0.58) & 5.82 (0.64) & 5.79 (0.43) \\ \hline  & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Colony-Forming Units (10\({}^{7}\) CFU \(\mathbf{g}^{-1}\) shoot)**} \\ \hline T3/T3* & – & – & 2.37 (0.68) & 2.34 (0.62) & 2.46 (0.37) & 2.43 (0.37) & 2.54 (0.61) & 2.53 (0.54) \\ \hline  & \multicolumn{8}{c}{T2: Microcosms containing phenanthrene-contaminated water and the bacterial consortium; T3 and T2*: microcosms containing phenanthrene-contaminated water and the bacterial consortium; T3*: microcosms containing phenanthrene-contaminated water vegetated with _P. australis_ and augmented with the bacterial consortium. All treatments of FTWs and CWs were performed in triplicate for 60 days from 1 May to 30 June 2022. \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Presence of the bacterial strains in the water, roots, and shoots of _Phragmites australis_ vegetated in CWs and FTWs.  
the FTWs might have been due to a space factor; in the FTWs, the roots had more space to grow compared with the CWs.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **CWs** & & & **FTWs** \\ \hline  & **SL (cm)** & **RL (cm)** & **SL (cm)** & **RL (cm)** \\ \hline C2 & 70.8 (9.2) & 27.6 (4.8) & 67.2 (9.5) & 30.6 (7.4) \\ \hline T1/T1* & 40.3 (8.7) & 15.7 (2.4) & 39.5 (8.2) & 18.8 (3.7) \\ \hline T3/T3* & 61.5 (10.9) & 20.8 (3.4) & 57.6 (9.8) & 23.2 (5.1) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* C2: Microcosns containing water without phenanthrene and vegetated with _P. australis_; T1: microcosns containing phenanthrene-contaminated water and vegetated with _P. australis_; T3: microcosns containing phenanthrene-contaminated water vegetated with _P. australis_ and augmented with the bacterial consortium; T1*: microcosns containing phenanthrene-contaminated water vegetated with _P. australis_; T3*: microcosns containing phenanthrene-contaminated water vegetated with _P. australis_ and augmented with the bacterial consortium. All treatments of FTWs and CWs were performed in triplicate for 60 days from 1 May to 30 June 2022.  
\end{table}
Table 4: Effect of different treatments on the root length (RL) and shoot length (SL) of _Pragmites australis_ vegetated CWs and FTWs.  
Figure 8: _Cont._