Plants

5 Beautiful Air Purifying Houseplants

1 October 2020

The best air purifying plants

Indoor plants that help to remove air pollution

Decrease the amount of harmful air pollution at home by increasing your indoor air quality with house plants. Pollution levels on the planet are rising and if you live in a busy city full of construction, you can encounter polluted air many times a day. Everyone, even if you’re a healthy person, can experience health impacts from air pollution including, respiratory irritation and breathing difficulties. Air pollution is not only outside but also gets inside our home and office space. By placing more house plants indoors, carbon dioxide will be removed from the air and replaced with oxygen, improving the air you breathe. House plants can improve the air quality for you and your cats, dogs and other pets.

Indoor plants

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The benefits of air purifying plants

One of the most well-known and undisputed benefits of having house plants is their ability to purify the air. By choosing easy to grow air purifying plants, you will improve your indoor oxygen levels and also remove harmful pollutants and toxins, such as formaldehyde, benzene, and ammonia from the air. But it does not end there. Scientists say that being around indoor plants also has a great effect on your mood, reduces stress, relieves aches and pains, and can even improve concentration. We are only beginning to understand the impact indoor air quality has on our mental health yet the introduction of indoor plants to improve the air and reduce pollution, already points to positive outcomes, including:

An increase in mood and productivity
An enhance in concentration and memory
A reduction of stress and fatigue complaints

You benefit the most when you include a variety of different indoor plants in one room. Some of the best indoor plants known for their air purifying abilities are Snake plants, peace lilies, spider plants and monstera. We have made a list of five of our favorite air purifying house plants.

Peace Lilies

The Peace Lily is an ideal house plant if you love flowers but don’t want to buy bouquets every other week. It has long green leaves and produces beautiful white flowers with a long stamen. Aside from being beautiful and charming peace lilies also have the amazing ability to detoxify your air and soak up mold spores. By soaking up water and re-releasing it back into their environment they moisten the air, making them ideal if you find the air in your home too dry. Peace lilies are a beautiful indoor plant that can be grown almost anywhere in your home. Also referred to as the parlor palm, these beautiful house plants also make a great gift to send to someone.

Succulents

Succulents have become very popular over the years. Succulents come in many different shapes and sizes, from large spikey plants to small delicate compact varieties. They are a perfect indoor plant for a beginner as they are low maintenance, resistant to dry weather and purify the air indoors. Succulents can help remove toxins, improve airflow, and humidify dry indoor air. Making them one of the easiest and beneficial indoor plants to add to your collection. If you are planning on becoming a succulent plant owner, we recommend reading our blog about the best succulents for indoors for more ideas and tips on how to look after them.

Calathea

The Calathea is a popular house plant, generally easy to care for, looks great, and brightens up indoor spaces. Apart from its beautiful appearance, it also purifies the surrounding air and filters out a multitude of compounds that are more or less poisonous. This indoor plant has many different varieties, but what they share is that they all have very beautiful leaves. Some call the Calathea the ‘living plant’, this house plant has earned this nickname by opening and closing her leaves on the rhythm of day and night. In the day time, the Calathea slowly opens its leaves, helping it to absorb the toxins from the air, and at night the leaves slowly curl closed. It is thought that some can hear the rustling sound when the Calathea closes or opens her leaves. This beautiful indoor plant is one of the best air purifying plants around and also looks great in your home.

Orchid

Searching for the perfect bedroom plant and you don’t mind giving your house plant a bit more attention? Then the Orchid is a perfect plant for you. The Orchid purifies the air by removing xylene from the air and releasing oxygen. Orchid plants do not grow in the soil they use their roots to ‘breath’ therefore the best thing for them to be in is an Orchid mix or bark. As the Orchid also releases oxygen at night, it’s the perfect house plant for your bedroom. In general, the Orchid is considered a high-maintenance and difficult plant, yet some state the opposite is true. What is your experience? If you are having trouble looking after your orchid have a look at our blog post about orchids.

Strelitzia

The Strelitzia is known by many names such as the Bird of Paradise, the Bird’s Head flower, and the Crane Flower. There are only 5 varieties of Strelitzia and one of those varieties produces white flowers as opposed to orange flowers. This indoor plant is easy to grow and only requires water once a week. The Bird of Paradise is a flowering houseplant and is from the same family as the banana plant. The Strelitzia is more of an oxygen-producing plant than purely an air-purifying plant. The larger the leaf of this house plant, the better as it increases its capacity to produce oxygen!

There is more to a plant than just air purifying

We have mentioned the benefits of air purifying plants, but there are also other benefits to having indoor plants. Not only do they make your home, office, and business look beautiful they also are a great way to reduce anxiety and stress. This is often why so many people have house plants at home. They give us something else to think about rather than focusing on our daily life. From checking the soil to making sure we fertilise the plants and water them at the right time, indoor plants have so much to offer us. There is nothing like looking after a plant and watching it grow up into a strong healthy plant with flowers and lots of leaves. The sense of achievement that this brings can make many people very happy.

With simple plant maintenance, such as cleaning your leaves, watering correctly, and knowing the correct soil to use you can be sure your plants will be healthy and strong. Indoor plants have become extremely popular over the last few years so it’s best for all if we know how to keep your plants healthy. If you’re taking care of your plants for the first time, our plant maintenance tips and tricks will provide you with some of the necessary information to allow your plants to thrive. for more on this take a look at our blog on how to look after your indoor plants.

Where to get you indoor plants to purify the air around you?

At Plaza Hollandi we have the perfect collection of air purifying house plants. Check out our Indoor Plant Collection or browse our Instagram for more inspiration. What is your favourite air purifying house plant?