Photo courtesy of in2jazz at Flickr.com.

Research by former NASA scientist BC Wolverton suggest that plants are an efficient and cost-effective method of controlling indoor air pollution. These air quality studies tracked common indoor air pollutants such as benzene, trichloroethylene, and formaldehyde - chemicals that often leech from paint, carpeting, and treated lumber and are often found at unhealthy levels within the home and office.

Wolverton’s tests with various plants found a 45.1% average abatement of these pollutants within a 24 hour time period. He theorizes that biological processes are at work - both plants and soil bacteria have several ways of breaking down chemicals and neutralizing them. Whether the plants or bacteria do more work is something of a moot point - soil bacteria often co-exist with specific plants (thriving on their decayed leaves, or symbiotically living in their root system).

Great! Plants are good to have around the house, they turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, and they may even remove pollutants from the air! That begs the question - which plants should we plant indoors to get the most bang for our buck?

Here’s a graph that shows the removal of Formaldehyde from sealed chambers (the vertical axis shows micrograms per hour removed when formaldehyde is at peak levels):


Photo courtesy of the_real_berserker2 at Flickr.com.

The plants on this graph include:
Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata “Bostoniensis”)
Dwarf date palm (Phoenix roebelenii)
Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii)
Janet Craig (Dracaena deremensis “Janet Craig”)
English ivy (Hedera helix)
Weeping fig (Ficus benjamina)
`Mauna Loa’ Peace lily (Spathiphyllum “Clevelandii”)
Areca palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens)
Mass Cane/Corn plant (Dracaena fragrans “Massangeana”)
Lady palm (Rhapis excelsa)

Other plants are also effective, and some are better suited for neutralizing other household chemicals. Here are a few “super-scrubbing” plants:

Heartleaf Philodendron (Philodendron scandens `oxycardium’)
Elephant Ear Philodendron (Philodendron domesticum)
Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
Selloum Philodendron (Philodendron selloum)
Red-edged Dracaena (Dracaena marginata)
Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema Modestum)
Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera Jamesonii)
Marginata (Dracaena Marginata)
Mother-in-Law’s Tongue / Snake Plant (Sansevieria Laurentii)
Pot Mum (Chrysantheium morifolium)
Warneckii (Dracaena “Warneckii”)
Parlor Palm (Chamaedorea elegans)
Ficus alii (Ficus macleilandii)
Golden pothos (Epipremnun aureum)
Arrowhead vine (Syngonium podophyllum)
Dwarf Date palm (Phoenix roebelenii)

Some of the plants recommended here are poisonous if eaten - that means you’ll want to avoid placing them where pets or children can chew on their leaves. Peace lily, English Ivy and mums are poisonous (lilies are particularly dangerous for cats). Weeping figs and rubber plants have a minor level of toxicity in their sap that can irritate the mouth and skin, but they aren’t particularly harmful (and may be more resistant to insects).

The safest non-toxic plants for cleaning your air include bamboo palm, lady palm (especially effective for removing ammonia and formaldehyde), parlor palm (good at removing ammonia), and moth orchids (good at removing xylene and toluene). It’s important to avoid doing more harm than good with these indoor plants - if you’re allergic to any of them, the toxins that they scrub from the air are less important than the allergens they add. Also, beware of mold - mold spores can counteract the air filtering benefits. Try putting a layer of gravel on top of the soil and avoid excessive watering.

You may also want to try using indoor plants to monitor the level of ozone you’re exposed to.

Photo courtesy of fallsguyd at Flickr.com.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Gardening Tips, Gardening Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.