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| Purify & Humidify Your Home With Areca Palm |
By Adam Camara – In 1989 NASA conducted something called The Clean Air Study along with the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA). While it was originally intended to find ways to purify the air for extended stays in orbiting space stations, the study proved to have implications on Earth as well.
NASA and ALCA spent two years testing 19 different common houseplants for their ability to remove common pollutants from the air. While it’s a well known fact that plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis, the study showed that many houseplants also remove harmful elements such as trichloroethylene, benzene, and formaldehyde from the air.
While all of the plants had properties that were useful in improving overall indoor air quality, the Areca Palm was considered the most efficient air purifying plant. The Areca Palm (Dypsis lutescens) is also an excellent air humidifier – at 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) in height, the Areca Palm plant will transpire 1 liter of water per 24 hours!
The advantage these plants have is that they are adapted to tropical areas where they grow beneath dense tropical canopies and must survive in areas of low light. These plants are thus ultra-efficient at capturing light, which also means they must be very efficient in processing the gasses necessary for photosynthesis. Because of this fact, they have greater potential to absorb other gases, including potentially harmful ones.
What To Know About Areca Palm
A list of some other top air filtering plants can be found here.
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