<p>Microorganisms are crucial for nitrogen removal processes in river ecosystems, particularly in the rhizosphere of plants where microbial activity is intense. This study investigates nitrogen-removing microbial communities in the rhizosphere sediments of wetland plants in the Xiaoche River urban wetland of Guiyang. High-throughput sequencing was employed to analyze the bacterial diversity in the rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere sediments of <i>Acorus calamus</i>, <i>Cyperus alternifolius</i>, and <i>Echinochloa crus-galli</i>. Additionally, the abundance of <i>nirS</i>-type denitrifiers and anammox bacteria in the sediments was determined using real-time quantitative PCR. Sequencing results indicated 16 bacterial phyla with over 1% relative abundance in both rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere sediments, dominated by <i>Proteobacteria</i>, <i>Bacteroidete</i>s, and <i>Acidobacteria</i>, collectively accounting for over 50% of the relative abundance. <i>Proteobacteria</i> were more abundant in rhizosphere, while <i>Bacteroidete</i>s were more prevalent in the non-rhizosphere. There were 24 bacterial genera with relative abundance greater than 1%, and the dominant genera varied significantly among different sampling sites. Cluster analysis revealed significant differences at genus-level between rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere, with high similarity between the populations of <i>Acorus calamus</i> and <i>Cyperus alternifolius</i>. Quantitative gene results indicated that the abundance of <i>nirS</i> and anammox 16S rRNA genes was lower in the non-rhizosphere than in the rhizospheres with <i>nirS</i> and anammox 16S rRNA gene abundance levels reaching 10¹⁰ copies g^− 1 dry sediment, suggesting a high richness of nitrogen-removing bacteria in the plants rhizospheres. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that the environmental factors most influencing the abundance of these two genes were total phosphorus (TP), organic matter (OM), and ammonium nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N).</p>