The trouble with living in our modern urban lifestyle is that we certainly will be dealing with poor air quality. If you’re like me and you live near a major inner-city road, you’re always wondering about pollution from all the car traffic. I then started to think what are the best plants for clean air in your home?
That’s right, you can quite easily improve the quality of air in your home by introducing indoor plants to help cleanse and purify the air. Not only do they have a comforting feeling, but these beautiful indoor plants will also help you and your family enjoy a better quality of air in your home. The best plants for clear air include:
- Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum)
- Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea sefritzii)
- Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
- Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata)
- Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica)
- Aloe Vera
- Golden Pothos (Scindapsus aureus)
- English Ivy (Hedera helix)
- Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema Crispum)
- Chrysanthemum (Chrysantheium morifolium)
How can indoor plants purify the air in the room?
Indoor plants play a pivotal part in human life. The process that plants use to convert carbon dioxide into the fresh oxygen that we breathe is known as photosynthesis. Through this process of photosynthesis, it also cleans out the toxins from the air that we breathe. This shows how important having indoor plants in your home is to purify the air in your home.
Indoor plants purifying the air was substantiated through a NASA experiment which was published in 1989. What this experiment proved was that indoor plants play the pivotal part in cleaning the air from toxins that cause harmful diseases such as cancer. In this experiment, it was found that compounds such as benzene and formaldehyde were cleared from the air. It was also found that the dirt that the plants were grown in contained microorganisms that played a massive part in cleaning the indoor air.
After this research was published there scientist that played a part in communicating that houseplants were a natural way to purify the air in your home. The strength of the purification came down to was the size of the leaves, the greater the plant surface, the greater the influence on the purification process. So the more plant material there was, the more air purification happened.
Which indoor plants produce the most oxygen?
To be honest there’s no real right answer to this one. Growing indoor plants to produce oxygen is basically missing the point to growing plants indoors in the first place. Through the process as described earlier, photosynthesis, the oxygen produce itself is a process of plants taking waste carbon dioxide and other toxins and giving off water and oxygen.
If you want plants to produce all your oxygens needs you’re going to need a lot of plans to do so. For every pound of plant matter produced by a plant, it gives up about a third of a pound of oxygen. A human needs about 52 pounds of air per day which is around 12 pounds of oxygen today. So this would require a hell of a lot plants to produce about 30 to 40 pounds of oxygen per day to produce all of your oxygen needs. So good luck with adopting the best plants for clean air.
But if your determined to turn your home into an oxygen creating factoring the size of the plant and its leaf size will be the major factor in the amount of oxygen a plant produces. So picking plants that grow to larger sizes indoors will play a pivotal part in producing the right amount of clean air and oxygen for your home. Plants that you should consider getting if you are looking for large indoor best plants for clean air, they include:
- Ficus
- Philodendron
- Norfolk Island Pine
- Polyscias
- Yucca
- Kentia palm
What is the best plants for clean air in your bedroom?
A bedroom is a place of rest so you need to find plants that help you get that rest. Amazingly plants do add that beauty and decoration but in they also drive a vitality to your bedroom. They play a major part in helping you have a calming feel to the room and clean the air you breathe in the sleeping process.
With all the struggles with everyday life, with all the anxiety and people dealing with insomnia issues, it really is a good idea to fill your home with a bunch of plants which promote relaxation and will help you in you in getting some healthy sleep. It is well known that spending time in nature will help reduce your stress levels so why not bring all that nature back inside your home and get some plants that will help you sleep at night.
The question is what plants are best for your bedroom? Well, you can take one that has a calming effect, such as Jasmine. Not only does Jasmine have a lovely smell, but it is also a very beautiful plant with pink and ivory and blossoms. There really is no downside to the Jasmine, the combination of its calming effect and the colour just adds a bit of elegance to your room.
Another favourite for the room is lavender and everyone knows the scent of lavender. it’s probably the best known plant which helps with inducing sleep and reducing the amount of anxiety levels you have. there’s been plenty of research such as this can help to lower your blood pressure slow down your heart rate and reduce your levels of stress.
What kinds of toxins do you find in the air in your home?
It does help to have a well-sealed up home and you would think this would have a positive effect on your air quality. Ironically it does have a bit of a downside, this is known as indoor air pollution. The opposite side of creating an energy efficient home is reducing the amount of ventilation in your home which then adds the problem of dealing with problems such as airborne chemicals from equipment and cleaning agents, natural toxins from you and your family and if you live with pets, all the nasties they bring along.
Don’t be fooled a lot of these toxins in your house indoor air can lead to both short and long term health issues, so it’s best that you’re aware of this and start to include indoor house plants as part of your purifying process. Luckily you’ve landed on this page and you’ve learnt all about the benefits of indoor plants and their effect on cleansing the air you breathe.
Four major sources of indoor air pollution:
Your pets – it’s sad Iknow to point this out but pets do and that level of air pollution to go home from what is known as pet pander. That’s simply skin cells that animals shed in an everyday process creating pollution. While not necessarily extremely harmful to all, for those who have respiratory diseases such as asthma this can really affect the quality of life.
Mould and mildew – these are a biological source of air pollution but we count them as a separate source of indoor air pollution. Mould and mildew come through moisture in the home. A lot of people can be allergic to the mould and it also gives off a horrible smell. People who suffer from asthma need to be very aware of this as it can cause attacks also cause irritation in the nose the eyes and the throat.
Gas burning appliances – well in winter it’s great to have the warmth of a gas burning furnace it is quite common that a lot of these especially older models can release horrible and harmful toxins into the air. unfortunately a lot of these can be releasing the dangerous gas carbon monoxide. This gas is unfortunately colourless, odourless and a byproduct of combustion and kills thousands of people every year. While plants can assist in removing these toxins from the air it’s always wise to make sure your appliances are working properly.
Household cleaning chemicals – Yes as we all like to keep our house is nice and clean, unfortunately, a byproduct of these cleaning products is the toxins that they release into the air. In our home, we try our best to use natural cleaning agents as this will reduce the number of toxins given in the air.
If you are just starting your journey with indoor plant let us suggest you take a look at our article on Hard to kill indoor plants.
