Sign Up for Our Free Newsletters Feng Shui for Love Room by Room Feng Shui Feng Shui of Plants Most employees spend a majority of their time in the office, so it’s important to create a space where employees feel productive and comfortable. Plants are incredibly beneficial to indoor workspaces, not only because their boost employee morale but they also have air purifying qualities. All plants can act as air cleaners but some are more beneficial than others when it comes to removing toxins in the air. According to The Clean Air Study, which was performed by NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America, the toxins which cause sick building syndrome are: Trichloroethylene - Found in printing inks, paints and varnishes Formaldehyde - Found in paper bags, facial tissues and paper towels Benzene - Found in plastic resins, dyes and furniture wax Xylene - Found in rubber, leather and paint Ammonia - Found in window cleaners, floor waxes and fertilizers

These toxins have been shown to produce adverse health effects to those exposed to them. The severity of effects depends on how often and how much you are exposed to these toxins. Below are just some of the adverse effects people potentially face when exposed to these specific toxins in the short term. Trichloroethylene - dizziness, headaches, nausea and vomiting Formaldehyde - irritation to nose, mouth and throat and in severe cases swelling of the larynx and lungs Benzene - irritation to eyes, dizziness, headaches, confusion and drowsiness Xylene - irritation to mouth and throat, heart problems, headaches and dizziness Ammonia - eye irritation, coughing and sore throat Luckily, Ambius provides interior plants that combat the toxins listed above. Red-Edged Dracaena- Trichloroethylene, Formaldehyde, Benzene, Xylene Weeping Fig - Formaldehyde, Xylene Bamboo Palm - Formaldehyde, Xylene Broadleaf Lady Palm - Formaldehyde, Xylene, Ammonia

Chrysanthemums - Trichloroethylene, Formaldehyde, Benzene, Xylene, Ammonia English Ivy - Trichloroethylene, Formaldehyde, Benzene, Xylene Professional Indoor Plant Design For more information on how your workspace can reap the benefits of indoor plants, contact your local Ambius consultant. Beautifully maintained plants for rental Which fragrance is right for you? Branches and LocationsFind a branch close to youContact your local branch Plants don't just look great. What are the other benefits?Find out more here Every design we create is the result of a process.Find out more hereThe effectiveness of plants as air purifiers is not really proven. It's a common buzzword on almost all houseplant sites on the internet, but if  you actually read the research, as opposed to information blogs and curated sites, you'll find that two big problems are that the original experiments were done in closed and controlled situations rather than real life environments, and the number of plants needed to affect the air quality rose over the years of investigating the phenomenon from 1 6" plant per 100 cubic feet to 10 10"

plants per 100 cubic feet, and even more. (The measurement refers to pot diameter, not plant height.) If you want to learn more about this, here are a few references: Critical Review: How Well Do House Plants Perform as Indoor Air Cleaners?   and Plants Clean Air and Water for Indoor Environments Another problem is how the "air cleaning" actually happens. ontario clean air car testSome research indicates that the soil, or microbes in the soil, may be as important, or more important, than the leaves' absorption of volatile gases. spider plant to clean airSo, to return to your question, if this is true, then the purifying process goes on at night as well as during the day because of the action of the soil microbes.woodworking air cleaner reviews

But wait, there's more. The other responders' answers brought up some points that I found disconcerting, to say the least. Plants that produce oxygen at night? How can this be? Basic botany and the study of photosynthesis say this is impossible; but I did a bit of googling, and there it was, all over the internet - what is happening here? Has there been revolutionary research done in the last few years that I, not being in horticultural-student mode anymore, have missed? So I set out to track down the source of this amazement, all to no avail. If anyone out there knows of actual, scientific laboratory research that shows plants producing oxygen at night,  please let me know. In the mean time, this is what I think happened. Somebody somewhere read about CAM photosynthesis, misunderstood it, and wrote about it as meaning that some plants produce oxygen at night. After that, this wrong explanation was picked up by producers of curated "information" sites, and has been passed around ever since.

I'm going to try to clear this up. As a start to describing CAM, it can be said that these plants work opposite from the normal. In normal plants the stomata (pores in the undersides of leaves) are open during the day and closed at night, while in CAM plants the reverse is true, the stomata being open at night and closed during the day. An incomplete understanding of the basics of respiration, photosynthesis, and the function of stomata,  apparently has led some people to extend the idea of "reverse is true" to mean that if normal plants take in oxygen during the day and give off carbon dioxide at night, CAM plants take in carbon dioxide during the day, and give off oxygen at night.This is not what happens. Plants don't give off oxygen at night, at least not in any significant amounts. Oxygen is a by-product, a waste product if you will, of photosynthesis. Thus, it takes place only in daylight, when the photosynthesis is going on. A small amount of the oxygen is used in metabolizing (burning) sugars for the plant's fuel, and in some other of the plant processes.

The majority of it is outgassed through the cell walls as it is produced by the photosynthetic processes. Some of it does pass through the stomata, but only incidentally.CAM photosynthesis is a defense against arid conditions. It apparently has been evolved independently by plants in a number of families. Some plants that use this process are many orchids, bromeliads, some cacti and euphorbias, some other succulents such as aloe, crassula, and portularia, sanseveria (snake plant,) and many tradescantia.Different plants use it in different ways, and to different degrees, but the process basically  allows them to keep their stomata closed during the day, to limit moisture evaporation, thus giving them a defense against dry environments. At night, when it's much cooler, they open the stomata to allow the air - which contains carbon dioxide - to enter. However, because the photosynthesis factories are closed for the night, they have to store the carbon dioxide in special cells, and send it to the factories (they're actually called chloroplasts) the next day.

If  you want to study this in detail, a good place to start is Crassulacean acid metabolismRespiration is the biochemical process in which all cells, plant and animal, combine oxygen and sugar to produce energy, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. It is not the same as physiological respiration, in which oxygen goes in and carbon dioxide goes out. It goes on all the time, though in plants it's far more extensive during the day, and in animals it's far more extensive during physical exertion. It's not analogous to breathing.  Although the words are often used in a non-technical way as  synonyms, it would be more correct to say that breathing is a by-product of respiration. If you want to learn more, you might start with Cellular respirationNote that water vapor is one of the by-products of respiration. This has to exit the plant through the stomata; it can't diffuse through the cell walls like carbon dioxide can. You can see the advantage of conserving the available water (by closing the stomata) if you're in a dry place, then letting the extra go when the sun goes down.

This is what many plants do by using the CAM photosynthesis. Note also that the amount of carbon dioxide that exits the plant is much smaller than the amount that enters, because most of the carbon is used to create sugars and cell walls. Understanding this might help to dispel the myth that you shouldn't have plants in the bedroom at night because they give off carbon dioxide. It's a tiny fraction of what you yourself produce at night, probably no more than a few breaths-worth, even from several plants. [warning - the number of breaths is an illustration only and not meant to be used as a fact.]Photosynthesis is the carbon fixation process by which plants use the energy of the sun to power the breaking apart and reassembly of carbon dioxide and water into sugars (also called glucose and carbohydrates) and oxygen. Because it is powered by the sun, the process occurs only during the day. The waste oxygen can be dispelled through the stomata, but if they are closed (as in CAM plants,) the oxygen can diffuse out of the plant through the cell walls.

The oxygen isn't stored in the plant, which is why it isn't given off at night, when Photosynthesis has stopped. Stomata are the microscopic pores on the undersides of leaves. They can open and close, and admit air (oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen) into the leaf, and expel water vapor and extra carbon dioxide and oxygen out. They are not, however, analagous to noses or nostrils in animals. Although they look wonderfully like they are breathing, and info sites often say "plants breathe through their leaves," it's not the same thing.They don't inhale oxygen as they close, and exhale carbon dioxide as they open, or vice-versa.  The opening and closing is regulated by a variety of environmental factors like temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and light level, and gases can be absorbed and expelled through the cell walls of the leaves.C4 carbon fixation is another process that allows some plants to increase the  efficiency of their carbon fixation  in times of drought, high temperatures, or nitrogen limitation.