This paper reports the pollutant removal efficiencies of two lab-scale hybrid wetland systems treating a textile wastewater. The two systems had identical configurations, each consisting of a vertical flow (VF) and a horizontal flow (HF) wetland that were filled with organic sugarcane bagasse and sylhet sand as the main media. The systems were operated under high hydraulic loading (HL) (566-5660 mm/d), and inorganic nitrogen (254-508 g N/m(2) d) and organics loadings (9840-19680 g COD/m(2) d and 2154-4307 g BOD5/m(2) d). Simultaneous removals of BOD5 (74-79%) and ammonia (59-66%) were obtained in the first stage VF wetlands, demonstrating the efficiency of the media for oxygen transfer to cope with the high pollutant loads. The organic carbon (C) content of sugarcane bagasse facilitated denitrification in the VF wetlands. Second stage HF wetlands provided efficient color removal under predominantly anaerobic condition. Overall, the wetland systems showed stable removal performances under high, and unsteady, pollutant loadings. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.