Indoor plants provide a fresh aesthetic appeal to any home. They create a zen-like ambience yet bring in their green exuberance lighting up the dullest living, dining, kitchen or even bathing spaces.
I wanted to buy plants for two reasons. First, as mentioned above for the obvious aesthetic appeal but the more important second reason was to introduce a natural air purifier that could purify the air in my home by absorbing the toxins. Free oxygen was just another perk.
I admit I indulge in planticide - not intentionally but out of habit. So I challenged myself to break out of this pattern. I began looking for low maintenance indoor plants - Self watering would have been nice but I didn't want to push it.
I narrowed down my criteria to 3 must-have attributes and began my search:
1) High rating on removing toxic chemicals from the indoor air
2) Low on maintenance
3) High resistance to insects and flies
I didn't have to look far as I found several online gardening/home magazines and blogs pointing me to a NASA research done in 1989 on indoor plants and guess what they provided a score to each plant based on the criteria that I had i.e. how well they remove chemical vapors, resist insects and how easy it is to maintain in a home or green office space.
You can find the summary article and the original NASA document at the end of this entry but I wanted to list a few of my choices from their list :
1. Areca Palm
NASA score is 8.5 ranked as the top air purifying plant. It is also the most efficient natural humidifier that can give your electric humidifier a run for its money. It brings me an inch closer to the feeling of a beach-getaway owing to its long palm tree leaves.
2. Lady Palm
Lady Palm gives a tough competition to Mr. Palm above tying at 8.5 NASA score in air purification. What I also particularly like about the lady is its versatility to survive in most temperatures ranging from 20-100 F and fierce resistance towards insects.
3. Rubber Plant
Rubber plant ranks 4th on the NASA list closing at 8.0 NASA score. They excel at removing toxic chemicals esp. formaldehyde and can survive in low lights than many other plants which means I can keep them indoors for longer periods of time without rotating them. However, the leaves can be toxic so better keep them away from children or pets. This reminds me of my mom's first collection potted plants and I just only remember one of them which was the rubber plant.
4. Peace Lilly
Peace Lilly scores at 7.5 needs plenty of water and modest amount of sunlight. This is a slightly higher maintenance plant as compared to the others and thus the lower rating but it looks beautiful sitting on an office desk that has an overlooking window or a kitchen counter that opens up to the sun.
Send me your tips of keeping indoor plants healthy and which ones you choose to keep. I would love to hear from you.
Sources:
1. Original NASA Document - (http://www.scribd.com/doc/1837156/NASA-Indoor-Plants)
2. Article from Webecoist - (http://webecoist.com/2009/04/08/air-purifying-plants/)
