Holy House Plants, Batman!!!

Last week, in an attempt to preserve one of my finicky house plants, I took it to my office so that I might pay more attention to it, since technically, I spend more time during the week at my office than at home. During the time I spent nurturing my water hog of a plant back to perfect health, I start digging around and researching the health benefits of plants. 

And they’re pretty much superheroes. 

Turns out, if you don’t have plants (real, not plastic) in your office or your home, you should really consider adopting some, and here are some (10, like my favorite Doctor) reasons: 


1.  They purify the air.  Yes, you already knew this, but sometimes it’s more fun to play Captain Obvious. Athough I’d prefer quality time with Captain Tightpants.

Sorry Buddy!

2.  They create an optimistic environment. Sure enough, studies show that having plants and being surrounded by living things just makes you happier.

3. They decrease your chances of catching a cold. This is because they filter out all the dust in the air. No more Sneezing!!

4. They cause greater attentiveness. Somehow, plants tend to help people focus better and access the smarter parts of their brains. Perhaps, this is because plants instinctively remind us of being in the wild, where predators can jump out from behind the bushes, or house plants. Or, it could just be a rabbit. Either way, alertness and attentiveness is A - Game.

5. They prevent drowsiness. This amazing feat is accomplished by the ability of plants to decrease the amount of CO2 in the air, which coincidentally can cause drowsiness. The CO2, not the cleanliness of air...

6. They can help prevent allergies. Not 100% guaranteed, but exposing children to plants at an early age can reduce the probability of them being allergic to plants and pollens as the get older.

7. Plants help with headaches. A point that wasn’t intuitive for me, but research suggests that musty, stale air can help cause headaches. Plants filter the air, and decrease your chance of feeling like your head is going to explode (as is wont to happen for many telepaths).

8. Plants can help improve sleep. By increasing the amount of oxygen in the air, plants can actually aid your sleep quality. The more clean air and oxygen you have, the more likely you’re going to get better quality zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... Sorry, dozed off there.

9. Plants can help with dry skin. How do they do that? They increase the humidity in the air. Way to go plants.

10. Plants are sound filters. I never saw this coming, but it turns out that plants can act as filters for background noise. Want to drown out your neighbors? By some plants, there are at least 9 other potential benefits.

Amazing! But where I hit a snag when I want to buy plants, is I have no idea which plants I can keep indoors without killing, or rather which ones are the most common houseplants, and have a healthy chance of surviving. So by doing some more research I found this article and discovered the 10 (allons-y) common house plants below:

1. Aloe Plant - Good for your home, your office and your skin.

2. English Ivy 

3. Rubber Tree

4. Peace Lily - My experience with these plants is that they’re extreme water hogs, and will instantly droop without water and perk up within 15 minutes of receiving it. Peace, my eye!

5. Snake Plant - Which my family calls Mother-in-law’s tongue....

6.Bamboo palm - Comes with extra Luck.

7. Philodendron

8. Spider Plant - These are actually really cool because they grow baby plants on extended tendrils. If you remove the babies and place them in a pot, they’ll grow into another full sized plant. BE CAREFUL, THESE ARE LIKE TRIBBLES. And we all know the Trouble with Tribbles.

9. Red-Edged Dracaena

10. Golden Pothos - A plant that also does well outside in the right conditions. I’ve seen leaves of this plant (when planted outside) a size larger than elephant ears. Makes me wonder how powerful the plant is, or if someone buried a dead body beneath it....

But the next question, then, is how many plants is a good number? I would suggest not too many. Don’t go overboard like Bruce Wayne’s good friend, Dr. Pamela Isley:

However, if you want to get technical, it is suggested that a living/working space should have an 8 inch (or larger) potted plant for every 129 square feet.  This will help purify your air, as well as grant you some, if not all, of the benefits listed above.

And how committed am I in my belief in the holistic benefits of plants? I’d like to think more plants in my life couldn’t hurt. In fact, I just adopted a new one for my office:

No, this is not my office, it is a staging area for the plant's relocation to the office.
Yes, that is a hula hoop in the background.

I’m hoping the pointy leaves will keep out grouchy co-workers. Yet another added benefit of indoor plants.