Houseplants to Improve Air Quality

Thoughts and musings

Houseplants to Improve Air Quality

Lewis | February 17, 2015 | 0 Comments

This post is quite ground-breaking; the usual process for our marketing team is to conduct vast market research to find suitable articles to blog about. But this time, this slice of fried gold was, quite literally, Stumbled onto. It was found via the discovery engine StumbleUpon, a great website which gives you articles corresponding to your interests. We do recommend you check it out; we here at Oakleigh Manor use it as a point of interest, sharing anything that catches our collective eyes. This “sharing” is usually done via other social media, but we felt this article would be well at home in one of our blog articles. The original article, penned by Julie Knapp at the Mother Nature Network, can be found by clicking here. But, as always, stay tuned for out marketing teams’ famous writing style!

Knapp has compiled a list of 15 houseplants to have in your home, as they help improve air quality. Through photosynthesis, in layman’s terms, plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. They also help rid our air of other atmospheric “nasties”, and considering indoor air usually more polluted, having certain houseplants to remove toxins from the mixture you breathe is only beneficial. Air is technically a “mixture”, as opposed to a compound or element. It is a mixture of a number of elements, as well as compounds, that aren’t chemically bonded. We aren’t science teachers, but we feel we have been accurate today! But we digress; onto the article!

All of these plants can rid the atmosphere in your home of toxins such as benzene, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, xylene, trychloroethylene and toluene between them. A study has also shown that the plant English ivy even reduced the number of airborne fecal-matter particles, so maybe put this one in or near the bathroom! There are some pros and cons to some of these plants; they may not be suitable with small children and pets around – the heart leaf philodendron, for example, is toxic when eaten, but is exceptional at removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from your atmosphere. Others are harder to care for than others; such as the chrysanthemum and the weeping fig. Yet, some thrive with very little attention, or even sunlight! Knapp notes that “you’ll have a hard time killing” the spider plant, and others such as the peace lily and the Chinese evergreen need very little water and sunlight to still be able to thrive and bloom.

So there you have it! Check out the original article, do a bit of research yourself, and find out what houseplant is most suited to you! This author’s personal favourite? Aloe vera; beyond the air filtration benefits it provides, aloe also helps with cuts and burns, and considering I’m quite a clumsy gent, it’s a no-lose situation for me!