Ten pilot-scale surface flow constructed wetland systems (SFCWs) engineering cases with respective different vegetation species were constructed to treat the rural domestic sewage in subtropical area at cold season (Yongchun City, Fujian Province). The efficiency of SFCWs, the biomass of vegetation, and contents of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) in aboveground biomass were investigated in this current study. In the reduction of ammonia nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N), the SFCWs of Jussiaea repens and Canna indica showed excellent performance, and the NH₄⁺-N removal percentages in SFCWs with both above species were 76.7% and 87.7%, respectively. Additionally, SFCWs with C. indica also showed good performance in the reduction of total nitrogen (TN). Over 80.3% of TN was removed in SFCW engineering case, which planted with C. indica in early and deep winter. The experiment also revealed that those two vegetation species could remove total phosphorus (TP). The TP removal percentage by J. repens reached 69.0% in the experiment conducted in the fall of 2014, and SFCWs with C. indica could also remove TP, although it showed a lower removal percentage than J. repens. J. repens and C. indica could also have high biomass and high nutrients (N, P) contents in their aboveground tissues comparing to the other vegetation species. The dry biomass of J. repens and C. indica were 0.46 and 0.30 kg/m², respectively. The tissue nitrogen contents of J. repens and C. indica were 6.43 and 4.60 g/m², respectively. The tissue phosphorus contents of J. repens and C. indica were 0.50 and 1.01 g/m², respectively. The result of this study indicated that J. repens and C. indica could be selected as potential SFCWs engineering case vegetation species for the treatment of rural domestic sewage in subtropical regions, due to their good performance, high biomass and strong nutrients uptake ability.