This paper briefly reviews the progress in studies of wetland plants in terms of heavy metal pollution. The current research mainly includes the following areas: (1) metal uptake, translocation, and distributions in wetland plants and toxicological effects on wetland plants, (2) radial oxygen loss (ROL) of wetland plants and its effects on metal mobility in rhizosphere soils, (3) constitutional metal tolerance in wetland plants, and (4) mechanisms of metal tolerance by wetland plants. Although a number of accomplishments have been achieved, many issues still remain unanswered. The future research effort is likely to focus on the ROL of wetland plants affecting metal speciation and bioavailability in rhizosphere soils, and the development of rhizosphere management technologies to facilitate and improve practical applications of phytoremediation of metalpolluted soils.