Untreated and chemically treated Albizia coriaria, Erythrina abyssinica and Musa spp. were studied in batch for uptake of Cd(2+) and Pb(2+) ions at pH 2.0-9.0 and agitation time of 30-390 min. Optimum biosorption conditions were pH 4 for Pb(2+) ions and pH 5 for Cd(2+) ions, contact time was 3.5 hours at 24 ± 1 °C for 10 mg/L biosorbent dosage and initial metal ions concentration of 20 mg/L. Chemical treatment had a 10-17% biosorption efficiency enhancement for Cd(2+) ions and a 1.6-2.3% reduction effect for Pb(2+) ions. The sorption capacities for Cd(2+) and Pb(2+) ions for treated biosorbents were 1.760-1.738 mg g(-1) compared to 1.415-1.539 mg g(-1) for untreated materials. The pseudo second-order model suitably fitted the Cd(2+) and Pb(2+) ions biosorption data with regression coefficients (R(2)) of 0.9784-0.9999. Fitting of the Ho model to the experimental data showed that the biosorption mechanism for both metal ions studied was mainly a chemisorption process. Therefore, treated A. coriaria, E. abyssinica and Musa spp. were potential biosorbents for remediation of Cd(2+) ions and the untreated materials suitable for removing Pb(2+) ions from contaminated aqueous media.