[Pil-pc-oceania] indoor plants clean pollutants from the air

[Robyn Williamson]

On Wednesday, June 6, 2007, at 12:00 pm, 
pil-pc-oceania-request at lists.permacultureinternational.org/Petra Kahle 
wrote:

> Other names for some plants:
> Chinese Evergreen- Aglaonemas
> Marginata and  Janet Craig ? 2 types of dracaena, look like cordylines
> "Devils Ivy" or "Golden Pothos"-  Scindapsus aures - synonym Epipremnum
> aureum
> spider plant -Chlorophytum comosum
> Draceana massangeana- not sure about the ?massangeana? bit but dracaena
> are cordylines
> Spathiphyllum- Peace Lily

All the above are really good plants that can live indoors and with the 
exception of Spathiphyllum don't mind drying out between deep 
waterings.  Spaths are water addicts, you can even sit them in a saucer 
of water although not recommended because over time the soil in the 
bottom of the pot becomes anaerobic, accumulated salts do not get a 
chance to be leached out and your plant will not grow vigourously.  The 
spider plant is very easy to look after indoors but it's an 
environmental weed in Sydney so be prepared for some sneers if you have 
bush regenerators over for dinner.  All the Dracaenas are good 
performers indoors but any plant with dull green, coloured or 
variegated leaves like D. fragrans cv. 'Massangeana' [Deremensis Group] 
needs much more light than those with deep green, glossy leaves like 
the cultivar 'Janet Craig'.  Personally, I love the parent species from 
Africa, D. fragrans.  In the olden days it was commonly known as Happy 
Plant and a Chinese grower told me that if it ever gets a flower to 
rush out and buy a lottery ticket because it's a sign of inheriting 
great wealth.  I've had mine for 25 years now with still no sign of a 
flower.

> I also heard that it?s the little critters in the soil that do the 
> actual
> cleaning.

So maybe any plant might do something similar? although some are bound 
to be better at it than others.  I know that big Dracaenas are fairly 
expensive outside of Queensland, especially 'Janet Craig' if you can 
find one ... it's very popular with the indoor plant hire companies.

I was in the interior plantscaping industry in the early eighties when 
I first heard about the NASA research into indoor plants.  At that time 
they were saying they'd already taken indoor plants to the moon and 
found they cleaned the air in the space capsule better than the 
sophisticated equipment on board.  Dr Wolverton was working for NASA 
then but he now has his own consultancy.  His website 
http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/ is really worth a browse because 
he is also into wastewater treatment using plants [=phytoremediation].  
His latest book is called Growing Clean Water ..... Nature's Solution 
to Water Pollution.

I've also met a man in Kenthurst near Sydney who was conducting similar 
experiments for UTS, can't think of his name just now but I can find 
out if anyone's interested.

Robyn