Shhhhh....Don't Tell Anyone. I Love Plants.

As I was researching the current feature article on indoor plants, I was constantly questioning the science behind indoor air quality and productivity claims (a certain amount of skepticism comes with the job). The analytical side of my brain was looking at how studies were funded, performed, and presented. It was asking questions about real-world verification. It was finding that although there have been some promising studies, the science behind indoor plant claims just isn't fully developed.

Another part of my brain was making noise, though, piping up every so often with arguments for plants. Even as I was trying to pick apart the claims for indoor plants, I wanted those claims to be true.

I love plants. To be honest, I find them pretty miraculous. I have some plants that have made it through several moves with me, from two different graduate school apartments in Chicago to an apartment and finally a house in Vermont. One aloe plant has created so many offshoots that it has spread to three pots in my house and several in the homes of friends. Outdoors, I cut back brown perennials in the fall only to see them emerge miraculously green in the spring. I marvel at my vegetable garden each year. At the office, I have a parlor palm (one of the "superplants" that's supposed to clean the air) that sits just to the right of my computer screen.

Perhaps this is the reason why claims for indoor plants--cleaning the air, boosting productivity, and so on--are so often put forth in the popular press without the caveats present in the scientific studies. We want plants to work precisely because they are beautiful and fascinating. In the end, I think that plants do improve our buildings, but not in ways that are easy to test or prove. So I'm going to keep that parlor palm on my desk, and maybe get it a little superhero cape just for good measure.

Image: A Parlor Palm