Living Healthy - Oxygen Producing Plants
A thought occured to me that I might add a plant to my room to ensure I have plenty of oxygen. The door to my room is often closed so I have no doubt that this would help - perhaps a lot, perhaps a little. Since I wanted to find out which plant(s) might be best for such a thing, I figured I’d browse the internet a bit. Perhaps I should have tried Wikipedia first (although, looking at these search results, I might have been there a while), but as an old habit I started my search in Google.
My first Google search results using the query “Plant Oxygen” resulted in a whole lot of results concerning plants that manufacture oxygen (and other gases). Interesting in a peculiar way, but not quite what I was looking for. The results did include an interesting page from blueplanetbiomes.org, then again I doubt it posts anything you couldn’t find at wikipedia. However, I’m not sure I completely agree with these quotes:
… This is so because plants are the only organisms that can make their own food. … plants take energy from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air, and water and minerals from the soil … They capture energy from sunlight, and turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar and starch. This sugar and starch becomes the food that provides plants with energy to …
In one opinion, you could argue that plants take in minerals, then create their own food and consume said food. In another opinion, you could argue that the minerals are the food, which is then converted to another food which can then be consumed by the plants. To support this last opinion, if humans eat too much sugar, it gets converted to fat. This fat can later be turned into energy. Saying the minerals aren’t food is sort of like saying the sugar isn’t food, but the fat is. It’s not a direct relation but I think it suffices to prove that point. Anyway, I’m not really here to argue for it, just saying I’m not sure either way.
My second Google search resulted in a slightly better list. There were quite a few results for oxygen producing (industrial) plants, but I did encounter this little gem:
All plants have some capacity to absorb and eliminate various air pollutants and produce oxygen. However, the particular plant species is less important than the size (total leaf surface area), health, and growth rate of the plant. In other words, a large plant with lots of leaf surface that is growing vigorously is your best bet, regardless of the species.
So there you have it. Any plant will do, but the most effective plants are those with the biggest leaf area - green leaves, not dead brown ones. Good to know…
