Black odor urban rivers raised increasing concerns on its subsequent serious pollution. Investigation over the impact of black odorous sediment on the growth of wetland plants can offer scientific basis for species selection for river remediation. Acorus calamus, Canna indica and Sagittaria sagittifolia were cultivated in black odorous sediment to determine growth parameters including the change of shoot biomass, and photosynthetic fluorescence parameters including F_v/F_m, Yield, qP, qN, rETR of leaves. The results showed that after 40 days, the black odorous sediment had decreased shoot biomass of A. calamus, C. indica compared to that of day 30, while S. sagittifolia increased; Values of qP, rETR in A. calamus and C. indica reached to the maximum of 41.33 μmol/(m²·s) and 68.60μmol/(m²·s) at day 10, then decreased continuously till the end of the experiment. However, values of qP, rETR in S. sagittifolia peaked at day 10, then declined and increased after day 30 till the end of the experiment. It showed that black odorous sediment restrained the photosynthetic fluorescence of A. calamus and C. indica, whereas S. sagittifolia could adapt to the stress condition in less than 40 days; at day 40, qP of C. indica decreased and qN increased, illustrating that the leaf of C. indica had relatively higher capacity of heat dissipation, while the decline of qP, qN in A. calamus suggested that black odorous sediment damaged the photosynthetic system of A. calamus. In conclusion, when using wetland plants to remediate black odor river, the first choice is S. sagittifolia, then C. indica and the last A. calamus.