The 18 best air-cleaning plants, according to NASA

This popular ground cover has grassy leaves that are spiked, and it produces blue or white flowers. Although it is usually grown outdoors, it does very well as a window sill plant and since it helps remove trichloroethylene (in printer ink and dry cleaning chemicals), xylene (permanent markers, colouring pens, print cartridges) and ammonia (common aerosols), you may want to line your office or home office windows with pots of lilyturf.

You’ve probably seen this in shopping malls, offices and hotel lobbies because they tolerate low levels of light. With a maximum height of around 1.8 metres, they are perfect as a stately and dramatic feature for the low sunlight corners of your home. They do need regular watering and moist soil, but you’ll benefit from the plant’s ability to cleanse the air of formaldehyde, ammonia, xylene and toluene.

These colourful and cheerful daisies were mainly outdoor plants until florists started using them in arrangements. Grown indoors, they can produce flowers at any time of the year, in white, red, orange, pink and purple. The flowers usually last around four to six weeks, but even without the flowers, the gerbera or Barberton daisy has lush, dark green leaves that are effective at filtering out formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene. They are most happy with full sun and plenty of water and well-drained soil.

You’ll be tempted to look for an ear of corn within the leaves of this plant because it really looks like a corn stalk in a pot. It doesn’t yield sweet corn but it does help rid your home of toxic agents like formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and benzene. The plant doesn’t require too much – it can handle low light and the occasional missed watering. Find out which gardening tips you should best ignore here.

If you work in a salon or do at-home salon treatments with keratin, hair colouring, perms, hair-straightening, nail polish, or nail polish hardeners, consider placing some English ivy in the room. It filters out four toxic agents – trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, benzene, and xylene, which are found in these salon products. A hardy plant that can tolerate low light in intermittent watering, it looks lovely in a hanging basket with vines trailing over the side.

Because this plant needs humidity, it’s perfect for your bathroom – the right place for it to filter out the formaldehyde in cleaning products, facial tissues, toilet paper and hair treatments and dyes. If you remember to mist it, the snake plant is also a nice addition to your bedroom because it gives off oxygen at night – a sleeping aid. Find out which other plants are perfect for keeping in your bathroom.

For people planning home improvements, start by investing in some red-edged dracaena plants. It is rated as one of the best plants for removing trichloroethylene, found in some home improvement materials such as paint removers and strippers, adhesives, varnish remover and aerosol degreasers. Conveniently, these plants are sold at home improvement stores. They’re easy to grow and maintain and will reach about three metres tall with a spread of one metre; they live for decades under the right care.

The hidden talent behind the lush and beautiful peace lily is its excellent air filtering system. It boasts a high transpiration rate – that means it carries a lot of water from the roots to the leaves and releases moisture back into the room. Another benefit: Peace lilies soak up mould spores. If you want to encourage pretty flowers, keep it in a spot that gets morning – but not afternoon – light and make sure to mist the leaves and keep the soil damp.

While technically not a houseplant, these bright, colourful blossoms are usually abundant in stores in autumn. Be sure to bring some indoors: They knock down levels of all the harmful pollutants NASA studied. Decorate for autumn and place mums anywhere in your home where they can get not-too-warm bright sunlight. Water them often and deadhead the flowers to keep the plant looking healthy, and you’ll be able to enjoy blooms for six to eight weeks.

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Source: RD.com