by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Indoor plants are a fantastic way to bring the outdoors inside, no matter what time of year it is. Not only can they breathe life into a room, but did you know they can also, literally, breathe fresh clean air into your home as well? Many people have no idea.
Then there is the electromagnetic indoor pollution caused by TVs, PCs, including laptops, notebooks and netbooks, wireless LANs, fluorescent lights, etc.
Here is what some of the most common household plants can “do” for your home:
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Areca palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens) – this one is the top purifier and also humidifies the air as it cleans. Something that is also rather important, for too much of our indoor air, due to central heating, is way too dry.
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Peace lilies (Spathipyllum sp.) – also a great all-around air purifier, and incredibly easy to maintain. When someone says to me about an indoor plant being easy to maintain I always like to tell them that I can turn a cactus into a sponge in less than a week and that is me, a professional gardener and forester.
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English ivy (Hedera helix) – fantastic for removing airborne mold (up to 60% of airborne mold in just six hours, by the way).
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Spider plants Chlorophytum comosum) – great at removing 100% of the carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide from the air in only 24 hours.
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Boston ferns (Nephrolopsis xxaltata) – another great over-all air purifier but especially for removing formaldehyde from the air.
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Rubber plants (there are a number of species that fall under that comment name) – great for cleaning out those VOCs. I found one kind of them that some one had very unkindly dumped in a park and I have adopted it. It actually grows OK now since I remember to water it occasionally and I have also, successfully, potted on a “baby” it had produced.
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Dragon Plant (Dracaena) are also great for cleaning the air and it is said that they actually produce a great amount of oxygen that they add to your indoor air. Which reminds me I must do something to mine; the Dragon Plant not the air.
And this is but a small list. There are a fair number of other indoor plants and those that originally come from the outdoors, such as English Ivy, but have been bought inside, that do a great job in cleaning up our polluted indoor air.
To reach maximum effectiveness, it’s recommended to have at least one 6” plant per 100 feet of living space.
While we may be amazed at this is this not exactly what we should expect Mother Nature to provide… something to clean-up our dirty work, and dirty air. In fact, it would appear that, if we would but look, there is an antidote against almost all the ills that we have created found in Nature.
© 2011
