Lemon-Lime Dracaena
By: Alan Creach
Here in Spokane we are very concerned with clean air, as good stewards of the environment we would like to clean our air as naturally as possible and we can do that with the judicious use of plants. Plants were designed to clean the air, that’s why when you go down a dusty road the trees that surround the road are covered in the dust. The plant’s leaf or needle is doing what it was made to do and trapped the dust from the air. Granted the tree desperately needs a cleaning after a long dry summer, and that happens, in the form of rain that comes later. In several ways the tree does benefit from this exchange. Dust that collects on leaves is ultimately washed down to the roots of the tree. The nutrients attached to that dust are then used by the tree as it grows the next season. Remember when Mt. St Helens blew up, all the dust/ ash that covered everything. The so called experts said “wait, don’t touch it, it will turn into sulphuric acid and ruin everything, including the paint on the cars.” Everybody with common sense went out and immediately washed the ash off of their houses and cars, everybody else washed later. Well the experts were partially right, chemically speaking, sulphuric acid was formed, but in small quantities, just enough to reduce the PH of our already alkaline ground and allow the farm crops to uptake more of the newly available fresh fallen nutrients. This in turn resulted in record harvest for the year. So how can plants and their ability to catch dust become a benefit to you?
Plants can also humidify and cool the air around them. Moisture in the soil is collected by plants through their root system and then transpired back into the air. If you have ever driven by a large alfalfa field in the summer you have felt the coolness drifting off the field. That is the moisture in the field cooling the air around the field through the process of transpiration. Recently several people have asked what plants work well within the home for removing dust from the air and adding humidity and oxygen back into the air. The good news is there are a bunch of them. Here are a few common sense thoughts:
- First realize that the more moisture a plant leaf uses, the more transpiration that will occur, so thirsty plants will humidify your home faster, given that you provide the water. Keep in mind that big leaves mean more leaf surfaces that can transpire. So look for lots of leaves or big leaved plants. Remember that a large leaf surface will collect dust faster than small surfaces; just make sure that you give your plant an occasional shower to clean the leaves. Our homes already provide the tropical environment as far as temperature is concerned, usually set somewhere between 68 – 72 degrees; however, the specific light condition of each place in your home is the variable important to the health of your plants. Here are some varieties of large leaf plants and the light condition that they prefer:
Schefflera Family – tolerate lower light
Philodendron Family – prefer lower light
Aglaonema Family – tolerate really low light
Calathea Family – tolerate really low light
Dracaena Family (do not have broad leaves byt long leaves) – prefer medium light
- Second, softer leaves, not thick waxy shiny ones, as a rule will transpire more rapidly. Here are some examples and the light condition that they prefer:
Banana Plants – prefer high light
Piggyback Plants – prefer high light
Wandering Jew – prefer medium-high light
Swedish Ivy (Plectranthus Family) – prefer medium light
I would suggest getting some professional help when you are shopping for plants and letting the pros match your location with a plant that will work best in your home’s specific environment. There is generally a plant for every location if we carefully consider all the variables. Here at the Plant Farm we have one of the widest house plant selections in the Northwest. That’s because we are also a wholesale grower and we supply house plants throughout the Northwest. Our customer base is very diverse and we try to satisfy everyone with something. Over the past 30 years I have grown a lot of different house plants but I still have a few favorites. The first house plant I ever tried was a Hawaiian High Color Spider plant pup given to me by an old gentleman by the name of Fred Metzger. He had a very delightful nursery in the Spokane Valley for years. I used to stop by his place on the way home from school and look with awe at all the beautiful plants in his stock plant house before showing up at the “Salt Mines” down the road, also known as home, for another afternoon of forced child labor. Spider plants are easy and fun and have always worked well in the home in a variety of locations. Maybe you should consider Chinese Evergreens, they work very well in low light situations and there are so many different varieties to choose from. As a rule the Dracaena family is an attractive plant and provides aesthetic appeal as well as functioning as an air filter. I’m going to use a Banana plant a little later this winter, it’s from the Musa family of plants. Since it uses a lot of water and has a large leaf surface it will collect dust and humidify the air. Then when the danger of frost is past I’m going to plant it in my Urban Garden, right outside my kitchen. It can create a little textural contrast in the garden, I doubt that it will bear bananas but if it does I’ll pick them while I’m out gathering my Heirloom tomatoes, that’s right, the ones that I’m going to plant right next to the purple potatoes.
You should try doing your part for the environment; puts some air cleaners in your house.
The Plant Farm 