Air Cleaning Plants: Overview
Freshen up your indoor air with attractive air-purifying plants that remove chemicals and pollutants from the air. Artificial building materials, fabrics, and furniture emit toxins, such as formaldehyde, benzene, and acetone. Growing air-cleaning plants is one of the ways to decrease pollutants and improve your indoor air. The best indoor plants for air quality filter toxins and produce fresh oxygen daily, acting as a natural air purifier.
Choosing the right air filter plants for your home or office isn’t hard. There’s a huge variety of effective air-purifying house plants, from those with thick, dense foliage to elegant, airy palms or ferns.
Air-purifying indoor plants are the perfect addition to bedrooms, offices, and living rooms. You can use them to freshen the air in any place you spend a lot of time in, creating a healthy and relaxing atmosphere.
What Did the NASA Clean Air Study Find?
In 1989, NASA researchers B.C. Wolverton, Anne Johnson, and Keith Bounds tested common houseplants in small, sealed Plexiglas chambers to see whether they could remove benzene, trichloroethylene, and formaldehyde from the air. Several plants in this collection are the same types they tested, including Snake Plant 'Laurentii', Spider Plant, Golden Pothos, Peace Lily, Bamboo Palm, and Variegated Ficus Benjamina.
A sealed chamber is not a living room, though. A 2019 review of 12 chamber studies in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology estimated that it would take 10 to 1,000 plants per square meter of floor space (roughly 1 to 93 per square foot) to match the effect of normal building ventilation. Choose these plants for their looks and easy care, and rely on ventilation or an air purifier for that job.
Air Purifier Plants: Care & Growing Guide
Many indoor plants that clean the air are easy to grow. Grouping plants together raises the humidity around them and makes a bigger visual impact. Follow these tips to keep them lush:
Watering, Light, Humidity, and Temperature
Watering correctly is one of the biggest challenges of growing houseplants. How often you need to water depends on the type of plant. Don’t let the soil stay soggy and stagnant; overwatering is as harmful as underwatering. Office plants are often neglected, so choose forgiving, drought-tolerant plants such as Snake Plant or ZZ Plant for a desk or shelf. Watering will also vary depending on the location and the light. Plants for a low-light bedroom, for instance, will require less frequent watering than a plant growing in a sunroom.
Various plants have differing light requirements. Choose the best indoor plants for clean air that suit your home’s light conditions. Most tropical plants grow best in medium to bright, indirect light. Many succulents, on the other hand, can tolerate several hours of direct sunlight.
Air-purifier plants in dry indoor spaces often need higher humidity. Use an air humidifier or mist your plants daily to increase humidity.
Most of the best plants for air purification grow well in moderate, comfortable temperatures of 60 to 75°F, with slightly cooler nighttime temperatures. Keep your plants away from ventilation shafts, cold drafts, or heaters.
Repotting, Soil, and Feeding
Normally, you’ll need to repot your plants once every 1 to 2 years. Slow-growing plants that purify the air may need less frequent repotting. Most plants require well-draining soil. Add perlite or orchid bark to enhance soil aeration.
Fertilize your greenery indoors with a slow-release or balanced liquid fertilizer each month during the growing season.
Propagation
To grow more plants from the ones you have, divide clumping plants such as Snake Plant and Peace Lily, or root cuttings of vining plants such as Pothos in soil or water in spring.
Pruning, Cleaning, and Common Issues
Prune damaged leaves to encourage new growth. If necessary, gently remove dust from your plants’ leaves under a shower.
Yellowing, soft leaves indicate overwatering, which can lead to root rot. Regularly inspect your air-purifying plants in indoor settings for aphids, spider mites, or other bugs, and use insecticide as needed.
Choose the Best Air Purifying Plants From Our Collection
With a huge variety of different leaf shapes and foliage patterns, you’ll find the best plants for indoor air quality for any style or space, right here at Hey Rooted.
Which Air Purifying Plants Are Safe for Pets?
Some of the most popular plants in this collection are not pet-safe: the ASPCA lists Snake Plant, Golden Pothos, Peace Lily, Dracaena, and Ficus benjamina as toxic to cats and dogs. If you share your home with pets, choose plants the ASPCA lists as non-toxic to cats and dogs, such as Spider Plant, Boston Fern, Parlor Palm, Staghorn Fern, Ponytail Palm, Money Tree, and Calathea. Browse more options in our pet-friendly plants collection.
Variegated Peace Lily
The exquisite Variegated Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii 'Domino') is a powerful air-purifying plant that captures and keeps attention with its gently arched, speckled leaves and magnificent white blooms.
Staghorn Fern
You will be won over by the Staghorn Fern (Platycerium bifurcatum) as soon as you see its fronds, which look like a stag's antlers. This pet-friendly plant is listed by the ASPCA as non-toxic to cats and dogs and can grow mounted on a board.
Coffee Plant
Meet the Coffee Plant (Coffea arabica), a glossy, deep green houseplant for a bright room. Mature plants can bloom with small white flowers and set berries that ripen from green to red. Give it bright, indirect light to help it thrive.
Ponytail Palm
A drought-tolerant, low-maintenance pick, the Ponytail Palm (Beaucarnea recurvata) stores water in its swollen trunk and adds classic elegance to a sunny room. The ASPCA lists it as non-toxic to cats and dogs.
Shop Air Purifying Plants at Hey Rooted
Every order is backed by our 30 Day Happiness Guarantee. New to plant care? Start with our easy plants for beginners, or find a match for a dim room in our low-light houseplants.
