Abstract:
Cyperus papyrus, commonly referred to as papyrus, belongs to the Cyperaceae family and is
one of the most prolific emergent macrophytes in African subtropical and tropical wetlands.
Botanical studies have shown that stands of papyrus are capable of accumulating large
amounts of nutrients and have a high standing biomass. Its C4 photosynthetic pathway makes
C. papyrus highly productive with dry weight biomass generation rates of up to
6.00 kg m-2 y-1 and nutrient uptake rates of up to 7.10 kg ha-1day and 0.24 kg ha-1day of,
respectively, nitrogen and phosphorus. C. papyrus plants take about 6 - 9 months to mature
with a highly reliable natural re-growth and replenishment on a site after harvesting.
Studies featuring side by side investigations with unplanted controls, show that C. papyrus
has mostly a positive effect on the treatment of wastewater, i.e. it supports higher treatment
efficiencies for the removal of organics (COD, BOD5), pathogens, heavy metals and nutrients
such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The ability of C. papyrus to use nutrients from the
wastewater and the incorporation of heavy metals and organics into its phytomass, added to
its easy management by regular harvesting, make it one of the most suitable plants to be used
in wastewater phytoremediation in tropical areas. Therefore, it continues to be an excellent
candidate for application as a macrophyte in the constructed wetland wastewater treatment
technology. As such, determining the potential scope of the performance of C. papyrus is
vital for the optimal application and design of C. papyrus based constructed wetland systems.
This work collates growth, productivity and performance information from various
independent studies incorporating the C. papyrus macrophyte in constructed wetlands for
wastewater treatment