The Wellbeing Benefits of Indoor Plants

All houseplants improve health and wellbeing, but different characteristics draw out different benefits. 

Psychologist and Bloombox Club founder, has drawn on a range of research to map out the seven ways plants benefit us, and what to look for when picking houseplants. 

This post will help you find the best plants for your needs - whether you’re looking for air-purifying plants, plants that help you cope with stress, plants that help create a comfortable home environment, air purifying plants, relaxing plants, the best indoor plants for clean air or just the general benefits of indoor plants. 

Dust: Best Plants For Collecting Debris

You may have heard people complain about indoor plants for attracting dust - but they aren’t producing this debris; they’re keeping it isolated to one place. One of the benefits of indoor plants is that they are actually a great way of keeping dust away from surfaces, and (more importantly) your lungs. When dust builds up, simply take a cloth and gently wipe down your green friend, ensuring easy breathing for both of you!

Some air purifying plants are better equipped for dust-trapping than others. Look for plants with a textured or waxy leaf surface, and plants with a broad surface area, as airborne impurities will cling to them. 

Some of the best indoor plants for clean air are the Philodendrons and Strelitzias. Our favourite air purifying plants include the Strelitzia regina and the Philodendron scandens. 

Transpiring: Best Plants For Humidity

Lots of indoor plants come from tropical environments like rain forests, which means they’re adapted to humid conditions. 

Rain-forest dwellers love humidity - so, one of the benefits of indoors plants is that if they’re kept misted or on a pebble tray they’ll perspire and act as natural humidifiers in your home. In turn, this can help to relieve respiratory complaints (such as dry sinuses, coughs and viral symptoms) and skin ailments (such as psoriasis and dryness). 

Areca Palms are especially renowned for their transpiring tendencies, and Calatheas are a good bet too. 

Purifying: Best Indoor Plants For Clean Air

As they photosynthesise, plants help filter VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from the air. This is one of the obvious benefits of indoor plants - as we associate VOCs with cigarette smoke and exhaust fumes, but they are also found in common household cleaning products and aerosols. VOCs negatively impact our respiratory health, nose, mouth, eyes and throat, and are strongly associated with asthma and repressed immunity in children.

Some of the best indoor plants for clean air and filtering nasties out include ZZ Plants (aka Emerald Palms), Calatheas, Mother-in-Law’s Tongues and anything with a large surface area – like sweetheart plants.

Check out - Top 5 Air Purifying Plants if you want to read more about air purifying plants. 

There’s been some debate over air purifying plants and particularly the efficacy of the air-purifying benefits of indoor plants, but studies continue to come out in favour of their effectiveness - especially in sealed environments like skyrise offices and apartments. 

Read our summary of NASA’s research on air-purifying plants here. 

Form: Plants Which Help You Feel Calm 

One of the benefits of indoor plants is that houseplants - and nature as a whole - help us feel relaxed, and alleviate the body’s response to stress, but there are certain forms which do this best. 

Backed by empirical research, evolutionary psychologists have deduced that top-heavy plants an evolutionary response that induces feelings of calm and safety.

For our nomadic ancestors on the Savannah, gaging whether an environment was habitable was a matter of instinct as well as deduction. Areas rich with diversity, and trees with broad overhanging canopies would trigger physiological mechanisms in the brain, indicating the place was hospitable (so theorists say).

Echoes of this remain in our consciousness today, so when in environments with top-heavy plants and trees, we feel relaxed and protected.

You can replicate this in your home with an Aralia Fabian or a big Monstera deliciosa, two of our favourite relaxing plants. 

Colour: Plants For Vitality

Another evolutionary trigger identified by psychologists is the colour green, which has an enlivening effect on us. This is often why the colour green itself is cited as one of the benefits of indoor plants. 

Green is strongly associated with health and vitality, which is why it’s often used in hospital settings. Filling your home with lush, bright green plants like the Calathea orbifolia or Green Sweetheart plant.

Pattern: Plants For Relaxation And Productivity

There’s no doubt about it: relaxing plants are a thing. That is, plants that help us to relax just by being around us.

Fractal patterns in nature restore our cognitive capabilities by attracting our attention without draining it (sometimes called our ‘alpha response’).

Fractal patterns are continuous patterns that could repeat infinitely - you’ve probably seen them in contemporary art paintings (they’re the ones that make you feel dizzy!). But it’s only naturally occurring fractals that have a positive effect on us. Studies show that the human eye is particularly attuned to deal with fractal patterns of a certain dimensional range (Wise and Taylor 2002). And more recently, a paper published in the Journal of Life Sciences confirmed that fractal patterns in nature trigger our ‘alpha response’:a relaxed yet wakeful state (Hagerhall et al., 2015).

When in this state, our minds get relief from the overstimulating effects of laptops and blue screen tech and allow us to focus on specific tasks. Plants with fractal patterns include many calatheas, with the Orbifolia being a prime example, as well as the Spiral Cactus and Echeveria succulents.

Extent: Plants Which Help You Feel Grounded

All plants are living things, but there are some that register as particularly ‘alive,’ whether that’s because they grow quickly or move throughout the day according to circadian rhythms. 

For example, Calatheas (aka prayer plants) are one of our faveourite relaxing plants, as they open their leaves with the sun, and close them over at dusk. It's thought that having these plants in your bedroom can help your body prepare for sleep.

And vigorous growers like the trailing Marble Queen Pothos will push their way over bookcases and around banisters so quickly, you'll almost see them move! 

It’s with these relaxing plants that we feel most compatible. They’re more likely to trigger our nurturing instincts, and they remind us that we too are part of the natural world. This is a feeling that humans tend to get at the top of mountains or in the midst of untouched woodlands, but it can also occur when we build a relationship with a specific plant. 

When we are reminded of our small presence in the wider ecosystem, our daily stresses about work and status begin to lose their significance. We are given a new sense of perspective which helps us tackle challenges without being overwhelmed by them. This is one of our favourite benefits of indoor plants!

Boost: Plants That Help You Look After Yourself

One of the ways plant care can improve our mental health is through teaching us how to take better care of ourselves. 

In essence, when people nurture their plant collection, they start to apply that nurturing energy to themselves. It’s a subtle process, and not one you’ll necessarily be aware of; but it has proven useful in mental health treatment, and was used successfully in therapeutic practice. 

Engaging with plants can include anything from dusting your plant’s foliage, to closely monitoring its growth, to repotting it in nutrient-rich soil. So the best plants to do this with like a little extra attention, such as the Vanilla Orchid or plants which like regular misting (Calathea, Elephant Ears, Tradescantia). 

As caring for plants becomes habitual, we are more likely to apply care to ourselves; to other people, and to the environment. If this sound tenuous, neurological studies have shown that plant care can support grey matter in the brain, which is linked to emotion, decision making and self-control.

Connect: Building A Autually Nurturing Relationship With Nature

We also engage with plants via our senses. Monitoring a plant’s health by touch and sight is another way to reinforce the benefits outlined above. 

Some plants draw us to interact with them more than others. You probably wouldn’t want to run your hands over a cactus or a Snake Plant, but plants like the Philodendron squamiferum, Velvet Leaf Philodendron and Dumb Cane dieffenbachia invite touch by virtue of their pleasantly textured leaves. 

Produce: Plants That Boost Your Self-Confidence 

Seeing the direct impact of caring for a living thing can make us feel more in control of our lives - something psychologists call ‘self-mastery.’ It can also help us feel confident, and capable of tackling the bigger challenges in our lives. 

Again, we can achieve this with all plants, but varieties which produce fruit and flowers give us concrete proof of our nurturing efforts. And trust us, if you can get a Linear Hanging Hoya to produce flowers or a Vanilla Orchid to sprout pods, you’ll feel pretty damn proud of yourself.