As persistent organic pollutants (POPs), excessive accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil poses a serious threat to human health and ecosystem security. Phytoremediation is considered to be a green and sustainable remediation method, during which the plants growth status and the soil ecosystem health may be influenced by soil temperature. To investigate the role of temperature elevation in the phytoremediation of phenanthrene (PHE)-contaminated soils, four kinds of soil temperatures for maize cultivation were set up in this study: ambient temperature (around 23 °C), 26 °C, 28 °C and 30 °C. The results showed that the removal efficiency of soil PHE significantly increased in the 28 °C treatment group, and the accumulation of PHE in maize was significantly lower than that of the 23 °C group. In addition, the results indicated that appropriate soil temperature elevation could effectively enhance maize growth and improve phytoremediation efficiency by regulating maize K