Air Cleaning Plants

Air Cleaning Plants

Have you ever thought of a natural way of cleaning the air in your home? Just think, no more using air filters and the costly replacements of the filters. These natural air filters also add to your decor and make your home much more homier. 

Plants act as natural air filters, because of constant intake of air through the leaves. All manner of chemicals and compounds then move through the plant and end up exiting through the roots. Bacteria and other microbes in the soil then digest or otherwise break these toxins down.

It sounds ideal, but how effective are houseplants at really cleaning the air? A 2-year study done by NASA has the answers. Their interest in the concept is to find ways to keep the air in future space stations clean naturally. Common houseplants were enclosed in glass and exposed to measured amounts of various air pollutants, such as benzene and formaldehyde.

All houseplants will clean the air to a certain extent but there are a few that really do a great job at scrubbing the air. After much research by NASA they have come up with these plants that do the best in filtering the air.
The top ten air-cleaning houseplants are:

• Areca Palm
• Peace Lily
• English Ivy
• Cornplant
• Weeping Fig
• Rubber Plant
• Dwarf Date Palm
• Boston Fern
• Chrysanthemum
• Gerbera Daisy

To a lesser extent, also Dumb Cane, Spider Plant, Pothos, Philodendron, various Ficus species and Dracaena species.
You'll need approximately 1 plant for every 10 sq yards (with average 9 foot ceilings) . So a typical living room (20 sq yards or more) would need 2 or 3 plants to help keep the air clean. Make sure that potentially toxic plants (like Dumb Cane) are out of reach of children or pets.
So if you have a corner that gets a reasonable amount of light, you might want to think about getting an all-natural air filter in a pot. Plants won't clean things like cigarette smoke, dust or pet dander, though. You will still have to do a little bit of housecleaning for that.