What Are the Best Plants to Clean the Air

I live in the Florida Panhandle and we are still trying to get over the devastation of Hurricane Michael and put our homes back together. I have an 89 yr old neighbor who has mold growing around her AC/Heating unit. She wants to get plants that will help clean the air of pollutants. Can you suggest some clean air plants. Thank you!

Hi Kay,

The first thing your neighbor needs to do immediately (or someone who can help her needs to do) is scrub away all of the mold with bleach.

There are several plants that clean the air of harmful chemicals. Since I don’t know how big her home is or how much light she has, I am just going to recommend some easy care, easy to find plants that should do well just about anywhere. You can read more about each of these plants and see pictures of what they look like in the Popular Houseplant section of the website.

Spider Plant, Pothos plant, Bamboo Palm, Chinese Evergreen, English Ivy, all of the Dracaena plants, Heartleaf Philodendron, Peace Lily, Sansevieria (snake plant).

The NASA studies on indoor pollution recommends 15to 18 plantsin 6 to 8-inch- diameter containers to clean the air in an average 1,800 square foot house. That’s roughly one plant per 100 square feet of floor space.

If you can’t find any of these plants in stores nearby, you can click the link on the individual plant page on the website and order them from Amazon.

If you’d like to see the entire list of clean air plants go to the Plant Wizard on the website and click Clean Air Plants. The entire list will appear.