Indoor Air Quality - plants are natural air scrubbers!

OHHHHH,  lest I neglect to point out that nature provides us with some great natural air purifiers!!!  Plants!  

House plants are not just pleasing to look at!  Besides brighten up a room with color and living energy, plants can provide real health benefits.   Complaints about headaches, stress, heart/circulation-symptoms and colds decrease when indoor plants are present, according to Dr. Leona Rogler.  In 1989,  NASA did a study to find out which plants were best to filter the air of the space station, and their findings are available to all.  They found that plants can remove a variety of toxic air emissions including ammonia, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, benzene, xylene and trichloroethytene, and decrease "sick building syndrome". 


Check out the following list of plants that were found to be great air purifiers, and don't worry if you aren't a "green thumb"...some are really easy to grow and care for.  They are also easy to find at local Home Depot and Lowe's stores.  Click on each below to see Wikipedia's info about each plant.  Personally, I find the spider plant, golden pothos (found in many offices), peace lily (can thrive even with low light), the snake plant (also called Mother-in-law's tongue, and can take low light and minimal watering), and philodendrons are easy to grow.  I've grown some of the other plants as well, but unfortunately my cats liked them so much that I had to relocate them to catless homes :)  The peace lily is pictured below....I couldn't resist....get it?  PEACE love planet?  :)

• English Ivy (Hedera helix)                            
• Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
• Golden pothos or Devil's ivy (Scindapsus aures or Epipremnum aureum)
• Peace lily (Spathiphyllum 'Mauna Loa')
• Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)
• Bamboo palm or reed palm (Chamaedorea sefritzii)
• Snake plant or mother-in-law's tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata 'Laurentii')
• Heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron oxycardium, syn. Philodendron cordatum)
• Selloum philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum, syn. Philodendron selloum)
• Elephant ear philodendron (Philodendron domesticum)
• Red-edged dracaena (Dracaena marginata)       
• Cornstalk dracaena (Dracaena fragans 'Massangeana')
• Janet Craig dracaena (Dracaena deremensis 'Janet Craig')
• Warneck dracaena (Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckii')
• Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)
• Gerbera Daisy or Barberton daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
• Pot Mum or Florist's Chrysanthemum (Chrysantheium morifolium)
• Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica)