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Palm and fern families work to purify home and office of toxins and specific chemicals

One spring afternoon my aunt noticed the potted ferns in my mother's living room looked a bit dehydrated.

"But they're silk," said my mother in amazement. "How can silk plants be wilting?"

Upon closer inspection the plants did look a little droopy, and the mistake became a family joke. "Don't forget to water the silk," my mother would say.

My parents, both excellent outdoor gardeners, turned to silk after losing several houseplants to neglect. After the silk began to droop, they reverted to plastic houseplants a move toward convenience many families have made.

Yet according to , an environmental consultant and retired NASA scientist, research shows that live plants are worth the extra trouble. In his book, "How to Grow Fresh Air" (Penguin Books, 1999), he describes the way houseplants, when used strategically, filter toxins from the air in your home.

"Our idea is to let plants be the lungs of a building like replica hermes outlet store the tropical rain forests are the lungs of the Earth," Wolverton says. His firm is developing greenhouse window boxes designed to pump filtered air into a room, and has designed indoor ecology gardens in Tokyo.

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Because high levels of synthetic chemicals can affect astronauts aboard space stations, he initially began investigating plants as potential air purifiers in microgravity environments.

Bay Area scientist works on a similar project at in Mountain View. He recommends selecting houseplants that are robust and easy to maintain. "The key is to find plants that grow well in the typical busy California home," he says. "Plants like ferns and ivy are good air filters, and they also show clear signs when they need to be watered."

Grace Olsen and Sarah Ostrenga, houseplant buyers at Yama Gami's in Cupertino, advise customers to start with something simple, like a snake plant. According to Ostrenga, too much watering is the No. 1 houseplant killer, with light starvation being the second. "If you buy something that looks pretty but is hard to maintain, you might be disappointed," she says.

For those with a little gardening under their belts, they recommend Boston ferns. Plant stores are offering a new variegated variety with leaves of different shades of green. Lady palms are also excellent air filters, and they don't need a lot of light or water.

Wolverton agrees that palm and fern families are among the best filters. While at NASA, he observed they can be used to target specific chemicals. The Boston fern, for example, removes the most formaldehyde a chemical used to preserve carpeting, upholstery fabrics and the foam in mattresses and couch stuffing. In contrast to the Boston fern, the lady palm removes less formaldehyde, but filters more ammonia than any other houseplant tested.

Many plants filter one type of chemical better than another and, according to Wolverton, this specialization will make plants the indoor air technology of the future. He projects rooftop greenhouses will one day circulate clean air through apartment complexes, and that indoor gardens will become a staple of the green building industry.

, the education specialist at San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers, the largest indoor garden facility in North America, says houseplants work well indoors because they evolved under the dark canopy of the rain forest. "Typically there is a 30 story canopy of trees, and anything beneath has to survive in low light, like you have inside," she says. In the moist jungle, houseplants also developed the ability to reduce levels of airborne molds and microbes, making them ideal for an indoor environment.

Wolverton's firm is looking for an American replica hermes bag price list distributor for a patented planter designed to use these natural capacities. The soil free device is on the market in Japan, and uses pebbles, activated carbon and zeolite to absorb toxins and wick water to the roots. It holds a UV lamp embedded in the pot that helps kill unwanted microorganisms, and has shown to increase a houseplant's filtration capacity by nearly 100 times.

According to Wolverton, the pot makes use of the tiny microscopic organisms that live near the roots of all plants. Unlike manmade filters that absorb chemicals like a sponge, plants suck air into the ground when they transpire. Microscopic organisms then break the chemicals into fundamental sources of energy and life. Because each plant species evolved with different microbes, filtration capacities differ from plant to plant.

"Spider plants are excellent," says Wolverton, "because they target benzene, the chemical released from replica hermes leather bag house paint." To diminish the levels of benzene, he recommends moving several spider plants into a room after it's freshly painted. For an average 12 by 12 foot room with standard levels of chemical toxins, two or three healthy plants will usually do the job.

"If you kill a spider plant, the next step is silk!" says , owner of the in Santa Cruz.

from the also recommends the spider plant known as Chlorophytum comosum. He encourages people to blur the boundary between outdoors and in. "Plants can help ease the transition between the inside and outside," he says "putting plants around doors and windows, creating a greenhouse or patio room, and simply opening a window can help create a transition zone."

Wolverton recommends clustering plants in strategic breathing zones. "Plants need to be placed where you spend the most time breathing," he says. "On the nightstand next to the bed, or perhaps on either side of your favorite chair." He believes people see the best health results when they place plants around their desk at work, where the indoor air quality is often very poor because of the recirculation of air through dusty ventilation systems.

He warns, however, that the air in the average home can also be a problem. As developers began to abandon hardwoods and natural building materials in the 1970s, the amount of synthetic materials in homes also rose. While smoke from fireplaces plagued the homes of the past, a lack of air circulation combined with increasing levels of synthetic toxins characterizes the modern indoor environment.

In Edwardian Britain, fumes from the burning of coal caused houseplants to replica hermes clutch bag drop dead. "The only plant left standing was the aspidistra (or cast iron plant)," says Heyenga, "which has a high tolerance for ethylene and the other gases released when coal is burned." He argues that it's too soon to know if modern homes are less toxic than they were 100 years ago.

"The modern day home has different types of toxins," says Heyenga. "Homes are also becoming progressively more insulated and sealed, which means toxins can accumulate." While it's helpful to open a window and let a light breeze circulate through the house, he also recommends purchasing a healthy stand of indoor plants.

Amy Zavora, an educator at the San Francisco nonprofit Garden for the Environment, encourages indoor vermin composting to fertilize your plant stand. Apartment models range from a simple plastic box to a four tiered structure, and rely on worms to compost fruit and vegetable waste. "Worms eat half their weight in food per day, so why go out and buy fertilizer for your houseplants when you can recycle green food waste?" she asks.

Experimenting with plants can also be a stylistic adventure. Fragrant lemon and lime trees do well in the Bay Area's coastal climate, especially if they can be periodically moved outside to soak up the sun. Many types of ivy can be trained to climb decorative triangular or ball shaped frames, and creative pots are abundant at art sales and thrift stores.

Cheryle Yednak, a gardener at Santa Cruz County's Aptos Gardens, suggests potting peace lilies, a plant Wolverton says targets ethyl and methyl alcohol as well as acetone and ammonia. "Peace lily blossoms, also known as white sails, are reminiscent of the sails on a sailboat when they are full of wind," Yednak says. "The peace lily fits most houses well because it can grow in a dark corner, and when exposed to bright, indirect light, it will bloom."

The atmosphere in your home will certainly benefit from that added splash of color, at least according to a Washington State University study that found houseplants reduce stress and help people relax. Plants have also been associated with increased employee productivity and a patient's ability to tolerate pain and physical discomfort.

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