There are a lot of myths surrounding flowers and plants within your home regarding their positive and negative effects. Some people think that flowers take oxygen from a room; however, this is not true.
Flowers do not take oxygen from a room. Instead, they emit oxygen, making the room have more oxygen than before the plant was moved there. They also remove carbon dioxide from the room.
This article will discuss how flowers emit oxygen, the health benefits of flowers in your home, and some of the best indoor flowers to have. Let’s get started!
Flowers Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Oxygen
Flowers need carbon dioxide, so they absorb it from the air, break it down, and produce oxygen. That oxygen is then released into the air. According to How Stuff Works, flowers emit ten times the amount of oxygen in a day. Most plants produce oxygen during the day and not as much at night.
Depending on how many people or pets are in a room at a given time, one flower might not produce much oxygen to make a difference. However, if you have multiple flowers in a room, you will probably increase the quality of your air by a significant amount.
Some plants produce more oxygen and are known for their air-cleaning qualities. Additionally, a few plants produce oxygen at night which is pretty rare.
The amount of light a flower gets also determines the amount of oxygen they produce. According to Home Guides, when plants don’t get enough sunlight to support photosynthesis, they will start taking in oxygen and making carbon monoxide instead.
How Much Do Flowers Purify the Air?
Flowers can purify the air by as much as 25%. For a plant or flower to improve air quality, the bigger they are, the better. Having a bigger surface area helps the plant absorb more carbon dioxide, thereby releasing more oxygen into the air.
In a study by Hort Innovation, researchers found out that having one plant of any type, whether flowers or not, improved the air quality by 25%. The size of this room was 13 by 16 feet (3.96 by 4.87 meters). Two plants produced a 75% improvement in the air in a room similar-sized room.
The study also discovered that a larger room measuring 26 by 26 feet (7.9 by 7.9 meters), needed 16 plants to improve the air quality by 75%. So, the bigger the space, the more plants, and flowers you will need to notice a difference in air quality. It also helps if the soil is exposed because it can help break down toxins in the air.
Flowers That Are Known for Improving Air Quality
Not all flowers are known to help improve air quality. If you’re looking for several flowers to do the job, there are two popular options.
- Peace Lilies. They are beautiful to the eye with white petals and are known to help improve air quality.
- Gerbera. It also does a great job at improving air quality. These flowers come in a variety of bright colors, such as orange, yellow, red, and pink, to name a few.
The Issue of Pollen
For those who have unfortunate allergic reactions to pollen, you may be wondering if it’s safe to have flowers in your home when you could suffer a bad reaction. Keeping flowers in your home for air quality, then having a reaction because of the pollen in the air would beat the point of purifying the air.
Allergic reactions will mostly depend on the type of flower and how much pollen it carries. This is because when you have flowers inside, there’s no wind or bees to move or carry the pollen around.
Types of Plants
First, let’s discuss the different types of plants. Male flowers are the leading cause of pollen. However, some plants have both male and female flowers. These are called Monoecious plants, and they only require the pollen to transfer from one flower to another within the same plant.
Dioecious plants, however, only have male or female flowers and require wind or insects to carry the pollen over a distance. These types of plants can be the worst if you have allergies. However, if they’re in your home, you should be fairly safe unless you’re letting bees hang out in the house.
Amount of Pollen
Most flowers produce small amounts of pollen, or it may be too heavy to become airborne on its own. However, some plants carry a lot of pollen so you should probably avoid keeping them in your home if allergies are your concern.
Some of these flowers are:
- Baby’s Breath
- Camomille
- Dahlia
- Sunflower
- Daisy
Flowers that produce little to no pollen are as follows:
- Lily
- Orchid
- Daffodile
- Iros
- Rose
- Tulip
- Zinnia
Will Having Flowers in a Room Attract Insects?
Having flowers in a room can attract insects. Although indoor flowers have fewer issues than outdoor ones, they attract aphids, spider mites, fungus gnats, mealybugs, and the whitefly.
Don’t panic if you find these insects in your flowers; it doesn’t mean you have an unclean home or are a bad plant parent. The biggest reason indoor flowers attract bugs is that the environment is humid and wet. If you live in a humid state, then this isn’t your fault. It’s just the environment around your home.
Other reasons are over watering your flowers and having standing water somewhere nearby.
When you overwater your flowers, you create a humid environment around them as the excess water tries to evaporate. The insects mentioned will flock to these flowers if that is the case.
Again, if you overwater your flowers, leading to standing water in the saucer underneath the flower pot, this can also attract insects as it is another moist environment.
To avoid humidity, it is essential to have good air circulation in rooms where you have flowers. Ventilation can ensure that you don’t have soggy soil around the flowers and that the surrounding environment in your home is dry. Your rooms will then become uninviting to irritating pests.
Indoor Insects and Their Effect on Your Flowers
You may be wondering if the insects mentioned can harm your flowers or are they more of an irritation. Let’s explore this further.
- Whiteflies: These bugs sport a pale, almost translucent color covered in a whitish powder. Once an infestation happens, it can be hard to stop because they fly away when the plant is disturbed. They are sap suckers and produce honeydew which is a sticky liquid. An infestation of whiteflies can cause stunted growth and yellow leaves.
- Aphids: These tiny bugs are usually green in color to blend in with your plant’s leaves. They are sap-sucking and can cause a lot of damage if not eliminated. Signs of an infestation are yellow or distorted leaves.
- Spider mites: Spider mites are extremely tiny and make very fine webs between leaves and stems. The webs are hard to detect, so you’ll have to look closely. These bugs pierce the leaves on a plant causing discoloration and stunt growth.
- Fungus gnats: These flying bugs are more of a nuisance as they don’t cause much damage to the actual plant. However, when they become adult gnats, they will leave your plant and get into other areas of your home. The larvae can cause damage by living in the soil and taking nutrients from the roots.
- Mealybugs: These particular bugs are light pink and almost appear to be fuzzy. They are mainly found near the stem of the leaves. Mealybugs feed off the leaves and can cause deformed leaves and stop growth overall.
Keeping Flowers in a Room
If you decide to keep flowers in a room, you’ll want to ensure they’re getting proper sunlight and care. Getting adequate sunlight can be tricky if you have only one window in a room or pets that might try and mess with the flowers you have.
For more information on taking care of indoor flowers and plants, go to: Are Flowers Bad to Have in a Bedroom?
Conclusion
Flowers do not take oxygen from a room. In fact, they absorb the carbon dioxide in the air and produce oxygen that they then release. Having multiple flowers in a room can increase the air quality by 25 – 75%.
Some flowers may carry more pollen than others. However, unless you have bees in your home or the wind gets in, you should be safe as it would be hard for pollen to travel to another flower without help.
When keeping flowers in your room, watch out for specific bugs that are attracted to the flowers because they’ll cause them harm.
