"Air purifying plants" Don´t exist! Or do they?
Have you ever seen "Air purifying plant" on a plant tag? here is what it actually means:
Source: NASA and others.
NASA published an experiment by Stennis Space Center in 1989 where common houseplants were tested to see if they can remove pollutants and toxins from the air, but this experiment was conducted in a small, air-tight space. That means that plants can indeed help remove pollutants from the air in your home or office, but not really noticable. You would need hundreds of plants in a room to really see a difference.
There are plants used in the experiment that ¨Purified¨ the air more than others though! Plants like Spathiphyllum (Peace lilies), Sanseveria (Dracaena trifasciata) and Spider plants (Chlorophytum) did more than others, but still not a noticeable change if you place one of these plants in your living room.
(Text goes on below the picture. Picture source: NASA)
Why do shops label certain plants as an "Air purifying plant" if it doesn´t do much?
It´s mainly just for marketing. If it makes people think that a certain plant will clean all polluntants from the air in their house, they will buy it! Now the shops are usually not lying, the filtering of the air is a part of photosynthesis and it is stronger in some plants than others.
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