How to Grow Fresh Air ? 50 Houseplants to Purify your Home or Office By B. C. Wolverton (Book Review)

   

 How to Grow Fresh Air ?  

 50 Houseplants to Purify your Home or Office 

By B. C. Wolverton


Paperback | eBook 

An illustrated guide on the health benefits of houseplants and a list of 50 air purifying plants for your home and office interiors.

 Have you ever wondered How air purifying plants were discovered? How do air-purifying plants clean the air and remove toxins? How do houseplants survive in low light?  Which are the best air purifying plants?  

If yes then let me tell you, you can get answers to all these questions by reading just this one book “How to grow fresh Air: 50 House plants to purify your home and office" by B.C. Wolverton.

B. C. Wolverton is an American scientist who has been closely associated with NASA’s clean air study. This book is a result of his 25 years of research on air-purifying plants.


In this blog, I will review this book and reveal what is in it for you? Also, I will share my key takeaways from this book so read this blog till the end of this post

What is covered in the Book? 

This book is divided into two parts. 

In the first part, the author talks about the causes of indoor air pollution and its ill effects on our health. He talks about how plants help maintain the ecosystem and how houseplants can help clean the indoor air.

He also shares a grower’s guide where he mentions the types of growth media, light conditions, and pest management for the houseplants. He shares pieces of evidence from his research wherever necessary to support the statements in the book.   

The second part contains information on 50 indoor plants that have been tested for their ecological benefits. These plants are graded based on four parameters namely ease of growth and maintenance, resistance to pests, efficiency at removing toxins from the air, and transpiration rates.

 Each plant is given an overall rating and is arranged in descending order the first being given the highest overall rating and the last having the lowest score among these 50 plants.

A page is dedicated to each of these 50 houseplants in the book where the author talks about the plant’s origin, light requirements, preferred growth media, light and temperature requirements, pest and problems, and care tips. The overall rating of each plant is displayed at the end of each chapter. 

This book has around 164 pages with illustrations that include black and white images of 50 houseplants and data tables from research.
  


What did I Like?

The book is very easy to understand and follow.

I particularly liked the detailed explanation provided by the author on the living biosphere. In this chapter, the author has explained how each plant creates a mini-ecosystem around it and contributes to maintaining life on earth.

Being a plant collector, I am always on the lookout for new indoor plants. This book has provided me a list of 50 houseplants with a practical plant care guide I could have not asked for more.

What did I Learn? 

I picked up a lot of things while reading the book. I have tried to summarize my learnings below.

1. Indoor Air Pollution and Health Issues associated with it:

The main causes of indoor air pollution are lack of ventilation and humidity, hermetically sealed buildings, synthetic furnishing, and human bio-effluents. 

Indoor air pollution can cause a lot of health issues starting with allergies, asthma and can get as worse as causing lung cancer and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

2. Houseplants help in cleansing the indoor air quality:

“Individual plants create their own mini-ecosystem” 

Most of the houseplants are tropical and are naturally built to do well in low light conditions. 

Below is a summary of basic plant processes and how they help to purify the air.


#1 Photosynthesis
Houseplants have a high rate of photosynthesis which produces oxygen.

#2 Transpiration
The evaporation of water from plant leaves is called transpiration. Houseplants generally have higher transpiration rates. 
As the water from the roots rises towards the leaves air current is formed and toxins in the air get moved towards the root zone where microbes in the soil break down gases into food and energy.
 
#3 Water vapor
“Volatile Chemicals” released by plant leaves can control airborne microbes and molds spores in the surrounding air”.
 
#4 Translocation
Leaves absorb volatile organic chemicals from indoor air and translocate these unchanged to root microbes where they are broken down by microbes.

#5 Root microbes 
Nature has equipped each plant with the ability to culture microbes in and around the roots. Root microbes can decompose complex organic structures found in leaves and jungle debris. They can eat toxins translocated from leaves to roots and repel harmful or disease-causing microbes from the plant.

3. Some tips I picked up from Growers Guide

Dust on leaves can clog the stomata ( microscopic openings on the leaves) use a damp cloth to clean the leaves.

Grouping plants together can help in humidity. Plant leaves can catch, and hold transpired moisture from neighboring plants to maintain necessary humidity levels. 

Most of the houseplants we know come from tropical or sub-tropical regions where different light conditions exist. Even if a plant is removed to a different location, it needs light as per its native habitat. That is why it is important to be aware of the plant's light requirements. 



My Recommendation :


If you are a plant lover this book is for you.

If you are looking for houseplants for your home or office this book is for you.

If you are suffering from indoor air quality-related issues (such as allergies ) this book is for you.

If you want to know how plants function this book is for you.

This book is like a reference book I would like to refer to and when required. 

After reading this book I seem to have a blast of ideas in my mind for my indoor plants garden and a long list of plants I want to own.

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