Healthy Plants for Healthy People WRITTEN BY HESTER MACDONALD, SWISS GARDENING SCHOOL
protect the flower stalk. If you don’t have space for “Mauna Loa”, then there are lots of smaller varieties, like “Power Petite”, perfect for a table or desk.
Plants keep us healthy in lots of different ways, from making oxygen, to feeding us and making medicines, but how can you tap into these benefits at home or in the classroom? AIR PURIFYING PLANTS FOR THE WIN! NASA and the Associated Landscape
Spathiphyllum are one of the easiest plants to grow indoors, and scored highly in the NASA test. They are native to Central America, where they grow on the forest floor, and prefer similar conditions when you grow them at home or in school – warm, humid and out of direct sunlight. The variety “Mauna Loa” was used in the NASA study, which gets to about a metre tall, with large glossy green leaves and white “spathes”, modified leaves that
PLANTS FOR GOOD MENTAL HEALTH
Contractors of America ran a joint study in 1989 to research ways to clean closed environments, like space stations. Although the results are hard to replicate in a real space, like a home or a classroom, with people and air moving around, there were a few stand out winners for removing pollutants like benzene. Peace lilies,
The biologist E.O. Wilson popularized the term “biophilia” in his 1986 book of the same name, defining it as a an “innate tendency to focus on life, and life-like processes.” Humans are hard-wired to respond positively to living things, including plants. There is evidence that caring for plants, whether actively gardening or just
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL PARENT AUTUMN 2026 | 52
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