9 Air-Cleaning Houseplants That Are Almost Impossible to Kill
by Greatist
What might your office or apartment have in common with a NASA spaceship? Unfortunately the answer may be poor air quality. Indoor air pollutants have been ranked among the top five environmental risks to public health: Stagnant indoor environments allow pollutants to build up and stick around in greater amounts than we humans should be breathing in. Living and working in places rife with air contaminants and lacking decent ventilation can cause "sick building syndrome," which can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, and eye, ear, and nose irritation. Lucky for us, NASA scientists have been working to understand this problem and find solutions. Their space-age solution was an easy one that anyone can use: Use houseplants to clean the air.
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Beyond air quality, plants just make people feel better. For example, hospital patients with plants in their rooms were more positive and had lower blood pressure and stress levels.
In addition to being easy to care for, aloe makes some serious health claims.
A superstar of filtering formaldehyde, these palms thrive in full sun or bright light.
These plants prefer to clean the air from a cool location with high humidity and indirect light.
There are more than 40 different kinds of Dracaena plants, making it easy to find one that’s a perfect fit for your home or office.
Though the ficus is a tree in its native home of southeast Asia, when it grows indoors, it's a hardy plant that ends up being between two and 10 feet tall.
In the NASA research, this plant was an air-purifying champion, removing ammonia, benzene, formaldehyde, and xylene from indoor air.
Peace lily plants are relatively small compared to many of the plants on this list, but they still pack some major air-cleaning abilities.
This is one of the hardest houseplants to kill. Although it does need to be watered occasionally, it generally prefers drier conditions and some sun.
Spider plants are among the easiest houseplants to grow, making them a great choice for beginners or forgetful owners.
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Agree, check the toxicity if you have pets - the peace lily caused me an ER vet visit
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I have a low light bed room and its absolutely stunning with these plants people come over and see my bed room and say WOW how do you make this so cool! These are great plants for a cool affect
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