Houseplants are known for their ability to provide fresh air to your home, but many breeds are also adept at eliminating harmful pollutants from your house’s indoor air supply. Here are a few plants that can expertly improve the overall air quality of your home.

English Ivy

Not only is an English ivy easy to grow, but it can also be helpful for removing pollutants from your home. Often planted in hanging baskets, this evergreen climbing plant removes benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene from the air. Additionally, it can help prevent airborne mold from proliferating within your house. Different varieties of this houseplant prefer different lighting, some preferring bright indirect sunlight while others prefer lowlight spaces. They prefer cooler temperatures and generous waterings but they’re generally a resilient plant. Spraying the leaves between waterings will also discourage spider mites.

Dracaena

Another resilient plant, the dracaena is perfect for beginner plant parents. Not only does this large group of houseplants come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, but it’s also a great way to eliminate pollutants such as formaldehyde, toluene, benzene, xylene, and trichloroethylene. These plants are very easy to care for, simply keep their soil damp and place them in indirect sunlight and they’ll thrive. Some varieties even produce small white flowers when they mature. As they come in so many varieties, some dracaena breeds such as Warneck, Janet Craig, red-edged, and cornstalk have rated the highest in their abilities to remove air pollutants.

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemums or “mums” are popular fall flowers, but they’re also beneficial for purifying the air quality of your home. But here’s the catch: their de-toxifying qualities only last while they’re in bloom for about six weeks. But if you give these plants direct sunlight and moist soil, their beautiful blooms are able to remove formaldehyde, xylene, ammonia, toluene, trichloroethylene, and benzene from the air in your home.

Devil’s Ivy

Another low-maintenance plant, devil’s ivy is also considered to be one of the most effective indoor air purifiers for common toxins. This hardy houseplant is helpful for eliminating pollutants such as xylene, toluene, benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and more from your home. It simply requires watering when the soil is dry, indirect sunlight, and removing the tendrils when they grow too long.

Rubber Plant

These evergreen plants from India have roots that grow upwards and can become entangled around their trunk, giving them an interesting and unique appearance. These houseplants are also good for the air quality of your home, working to eliminate formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, carbon monoxide, and more. Rubber plants do best with bright, filtered light and modest watering to keep the soil moist. Their leaves will also need to be pruned and wiped. This will keep them in good condition while your plant does the same with the air in your home.

Discover more about the World of Inspiration, and explore how young people are saving our forests, Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher, and what we can learn from a 39-million-year-old forest.