Abstract : Numerous studies in phytoremediation have tried to increase the uptake of metals by plants for soil cleanup. This work is about a new phytoremediation approach named Filtering Gardens using common wetland plants (Phragmites australis, Iris pseudacorus and Salix viminalis) in the vegetated cells irrigated so as to impose periodic flooding-drying conditions for enhancing the solubility of metals in the soil and their removal through leaching. In a pilot-scale sixteen-month experiment, this approach was applied for phytoremediation of Zn, Cu and Pb from an agricultural soil highly contaminated by sewage disposal. Metal mass balances for soil-plant systems showed that only a non-significant amount of metals was accumulated in plant tissues. An important amount of metals was removed from the soil via phytoleaching resulting from the interaction of plant roots with irrigation. An additional chemical treatment with citrate can enhance metal leaching. Mechanisms of Zn and Cu transformations involved in this phytoremediation were highlighted by combining synchrotron-based X-ray analytical tools at micro- (µXRF, µXRD, µEXAFS) and macro-scale (EXAFS) coupled with chemical analyses, allowing to determine the nature and amount of metal forms in the soil. In the initial soil, zinc was occurred mainly as secondary minerals (Zn-ferrihydrite, Zn-phosphate and Zn-kerolite-like-phyllosilicate) and copper was essentially bound to organic matter. The activity of plant roots under flooding-drying conditions clearly modified the original speciation of metals. In the phytoremediated soil, Zn-ferrihydrite, one of the initially major forms of Zn, was entirely dissolved. The reductive dissolution of this iron oxyhydroxide favored by flooding conditions was the major process inducing Zn leaching. One part of solubilized Zn coprecipitated with Fe into another less soluble iron oxyhydroxide, Zn-substituted goethite, under oxidizing conditions and with assistance by plant roots likely in defense against toxic dissolved metals, as evidenced by the formation of goethite plaques on and near roots. Moreover, the newly occurred particles of metallic Zn and ZnO were discovered in the rhizosphere, in small amount. The oxidation of organic matter likely enhanced by root oxygen release caused an excess of toxic cationic Cu. In response to oxidative stress, this Cu was biotransformed into metallic Cu nanoparticles, in important amount, by plant roots with evidence of assistance by endomycorrhizal fungi. This newly identified mode of metal biomineralization by plant roots may be typical of common wetland plants. This new way of making phytoremedation involves mainly phytoleaching inducing the solubilization of metals in the soil and their leaching and phytotransformation, due in part to phytodetoxication, driving the conversion of toxic metals into weakly soluble forms.