Plants in space

Here's a strange one for you –a two year study by NASA demonstrates that houseplants clean the air that you breathe. I suppose we all had suspicions that they did because plants exhale oxygen, but I had no idea the range of chemicals that they remove from the environment: trichloroethylene, benzene, and formaldehyde, to name a few. The recommended guidelines for a clean room are 3 plants per 100 square feet. That means we need several hundred plants in the new MPR building—I will alert HR right away.

This study also means that NASA wants plants in space. They must be looking at greenery for energy efficient ways to provide clean air for astronauts. I can just image epiphytes and orchids with their aerial roots floating around the room. Maybe I can get a grant to do weightless floral design—I am sure there is money for that kind of thing.