This is from, believe it or not, the Earthship website.  We’ll be talking about Earthships on Tuesday’s green building episode of This Green Earth.  (Google Earthship and Images if you haven’t the slightest idea what I’m talking about).  Anyway, one of the best things you can do in your home or office for indoor air quality is buy a plant.  Here are the top 10 plants and how they can help your indoor environment.  I added the photos, because I don’t recognize plants by their names, but otherwise this is all theirs: Adiantum absorbs radiation from computers and printers. Adiantum absorbs 20 micrograms of formaldehyde per hour and it is considered the most effective natural cleaner.  If you work with paint or have smokers around you, you should consider Adiantum.  This plant also absorbs Xylene and Toluene released by monitors and printers. Aloe “signals for help” when in excessively harmful air. Aloe is dubbed as an air cleaning expert. One pot of aloe is equal to nine biological air cleaners. 

Aloe absorbs formaldehyde, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. When the amount of toxins in the air have exceeded healthy amounts the leaves on the Aloe plant become spotted, signaling for help. Rubber trees are helpful in eliminating harmful substances. The rubber tree is a multi-functional cleaner that eliminates harmful substances in the air.  They can absorb carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and they collect granules which help reduce the dust around you. Asparagus can kill viruses and bacteria. The fragrance of asparagus absorbs the bacteria and viruses in the air which can help optimize your health. Ivy is the king in absorbing formaldehyde. Ivy is the most effective indoor plant in absorbing formaldehyde. Ivy per square meter can absorb 1.49 grams of formaldehyde.  It also absorbs harmful substances like benzene.  In 24 hours, ivy can absorb 90% of indoor benzene. Cacti is the best in reducing radiation and bacteria. Cacti is very strong in eliminating bacteria. 

In tackling pollution, cacti is also great at reducing radiation.  idylis air purifier couponIn addition, cacti absorbs carbon dioxide at night to release oxygen. rainmate air purifier for salePutting cacti in the room is helpful in sleeping and supplementing oxygen.best air purifier for morgellons Chlorophytum (umm, isn’t this a spider plant?) is an air filter itself. Chlorophytum can perform photosynthesis under weak light and absorb harmful air.  One pot of Chlorophytum in 200 square foot room is enough to perform as an air filter, which releases oxygen and absorbs carcinogens like formaldehyde and styrene. Chlorophytum is very strong in absorbing carbon monoxide and formaldehyde.  It decomposes benzene and nicotine in tobacco as well.

Clivia keeps air fresh in winter. One adult Clivia can absorb one liter of air and release 80% of oxygen overnight.  It can perform photosynthesis under very weak light.  Two or three pots of clivia in a room can absorb the smoke. In winter in the north, even with doors and windows closed, Clivia can adjust the air make it fresh. Monstera improves air quality at night. Monstera is really good at absorbing formaldehyde.  It also absorbs carbon dioxide at night and releases the oxygen, so it is helpful in improving air quality. It is also good looking and relatively easy to maintain. Pachira absorbs smoke well. If you can’t avoid smokers in your life, you can put pachira around you, which is effective at absorbing smoke. It also absorbs carbon dioxide and monoxide, and releases oxygen.AccueilPlanèteQuestions/réponsesPlanètePurifier l'air de la maison grâce aux plantes dépolluantesUn ficus peut aider à purifier l'air de la maison. © Maja Dumat (blumenbiene), Flickr, cc by 2.0  Pour purifier l' de la maison, il existe des très efficaces.

Avant d'en acheter une, tenez compte de la taille de votre pièce ainsi que des caractéristiques de votre plante.Purifier l'air de la maison avec le Chlorophytum ou la plante araignéeLe Chlorophytum est la plante la plus répandue pour de la maison. Elle élimine le , le , le ainsi que le trichloréthylène. Cette plante absorbe aussi le . Facile à , elle a besoin de et doit être arrosée une fois par semaine.Purifier l'air de la maison avec le ficusIl absorbe le formaldéhyde issu des d', du papier d'emballage, ainsi que du papier essuie-tout. Le est une plante très efficace pour purifier l'air de la maison. Il lui faut un peu de ainsi qu'une température stable. Cependant, il ne doit pas être placé en plein courant d'air et ne doit pas être trop arrosé.Purifier l'air de la maison avec les autres plantesD'autres plantes possèdent des qualités dépolluantes pour purifier l'air de la maison. Le absorbe le ainsi que le benzène. Le philodendron absorbe le formaldéhyde et le pentachlorophénol.

L'azalée et le spathiphyllum dépolluent l'ammoniac. Le chrysanthème, lui, absorbe le trichloréthylène (peinture, ) et le cactus absorbe les ondes.Pense-bête : si votre pièce mesure entre 17 et 20 m2, deux ou trois plantes vous suffisent pour la purifier. Les , comme le de Sibérie, la ou l', peuvent également purifier l'air de la maison.À voir aussi : plante interieurpurifier sangplante verteadn planteplante zenplante grasse interieurpurifier argilepurifier eau du robinetcomment purifier esterpurifier acide sulfuriqueNext GalleryMore Trees You Should Never Plant in Your YardView Gallery Create and organize lightboxes on the go with your Apple or Android device.Perhaps you remember the news from more than a decade ago that spider plants seemed to do a spectacular job of cleaning the air. The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), which tested the abilities of three common houseplants to remove formaldehyde from the air, found in preliminary tests that spider plants were the champs, removing 95 percent of the toxic substance from a sealed Plexiglas chamber in 24 hours.

Since then, much more research on the phenomenon has been conducted, and the news about spider plants is no longer so rosy. But that´s not because the tests were wrong. It turns out other plants also clean the air, of contaminants ranging from ammonia to benzene. Such toxics waft from countless sources in our daily lives, including adhesives, ceiling tiles, photocopiers and upholstery. And some plants do a much better job than the spider plant. The growing body of research on the subject offers yet more evidence that houseplants may be an effective means of improving the air quality in your home and office. Much of the research has been conducted by former NASA research scientist Bill Wolverton, who was first interested in greenery as part of ecological life-support systems for space travel. Wolverton found that plants absorb airborne pollutants as part of their normal "breathing" process (carbon dioxide in, oxygen out) and transport them to their roots, where microbes feed on and detoxify them.

Wolverton has measured the filtering capacity of specific plants by putting them into sealed, 85-gallon chambers with a succession of toxic chemicals, then measuring how much of each chemical remains at 12-hour intervals. The results have been impressive. "We found that the most effective plants had a high transpiration rate--that is, they emit more moisture into the environment," says Wolverton. "This is the result of a natural pumping action. As plants pull air down to their roots, they pump moisture out." Now retired from NASA, Wolverton is promoting houseplants in his book How to Grow Fresh Air and through his business, Wolverton Environmental Services in Picayune, Mississippi. Soon he will be marketing an "enhanced" planter with a fan and filter designed to maximize a plant´s natural pumping action. But while other studies have verified and extended his findings, the precise filtering capacity of plants outside the laboratory remains an open question. "There´s no argument about what plants do," says John Girman of the Environmental Protection Agency´s Indoor Environments Division.

"It´s a question of how well they do it, and whether that´s enough to be an effective means of pollution control in a typical indoor environment." While one plant may clean the air in a small, confined space, getting those same results for a whole house would require many more plants. Just how many is not clear. Wolverton figures 60 would do the job; Girman thinks the number is closer to 700. Part of the uncertainty comes from the question of ventilation. In sealed chambers, plants have filtered as much as one-tenth of the air every hour. "That sounds pretty good until you compare it to the ventilation in an average home," says Girman, who calculates that three-quarters of that air is replaced every hour. "In other words, that great result you´re getting in a sealed chamber isn´t anywhere near the normal air turnover you get in a typical home," he says. Wolverton, however, says the typical air change in a house is more like 40 percent an hour. And some structures are far more airtight.

"Tightly sealed buildings create conditions very similar to static lab tests in that there is very little movement of air," he maintains. Another concern is the static nature of lab tests, in which a plant processes a limited amount of toxic material. Most indoor air pollutants are continually emitted by their sources. "In real-life situations, those toxicants are constantly being replenished," says environmental scientist Thad Godish of Ball State University. "In fact, when you lower the concentration of toxicants in the atmosphere, the change in vapor pressure actually induces a source like particleboard to release them at a faster rate." Wolverton counters that in tests he and colleagues have found that a plant can continuously remove formaldehyde from the air. Not only that, he has found that over time at least one plant, the lady palm, actually becomes more efficient at disposing of the gas. The anecdotal evidence suggests benefits beyond anything demonstrated in the laboratory.

"I get calls from people all the time who tell me their headaches or sore throats or other ´sick building´ symptoms have either gone away or greatly diminished after they´ve brought in plants," says Jan Roy, managing director of the Plants for Clean Air Council, an advocacy group funded in part by private growers. Because each plant has an affinity for different toxics, Roy and Wolverton recommend using a mix of plants. "The more you have, the faster they´ll work," says Wolverton, who has recommended, as a rule of thumb, two or three plants in 8- or 10-inch pots for every 100 square feet of floor space. One potential drawback of having many plants is excessive humidity, which can contribute to the growth of mold and bacteria and can encourage unwanted pests. To help prevent that, don´t let your plants sit in stagnant water. Once water has drained through the soil into the pan or tray below, dispose of it. Sub-irrigation planters, which have built-in watering tubes, bypass the problem altogether by funneling water directly to a reservoir in the soil.