12 Best Air Purifying Indoor Plants You Won’t Kill!
12 best air-purifying indoor plants, including kill-proof houseplants for low light and small spaces, and proven care tips on watering and fertilizing!
Air purifying indoor plants bring the best of nature into our homes. They are beautiful and uplifting. They can also remove harmful toxic elements from the air and improve our indoor environments, based on many studies including NASA’s.
When I saw NASA’s list, I happily realized that many of these indoor plants are actually thriving in our home!
These air purifying indoor plants are extremely easy to care for – impossible to kill really, and believe me I have killed plenty of house plants! They are small to medium in size, so can be grown in small spaces.
*Some resources in article are affiliate links. Full disclosure here.
These houseplants all require relatively low light – we may not notice it, but our indoor environments lack natural light, which is why so many indoor plants look stressed and gets sick with mildew or bugs even when you have been good with watering and fertilizing!
UPDATE: our indoor plant babies keep growing, here’s a recent post on more beautiful and easy house plants we are growing, plus more care tips!
Best indoor plants for low light.
The most challenging thing about growing indoor plants is the low light conditions most spaces have, even though we may not notice it!
These 3 house plants are great candidates for rooms with low light. And they remove lots of toxins according to the NASA data.
The Spathiphyllum cochlearispathum / Peace Lily, a very popular indoor plant that has such a beautiful name and never ending flowers, it is also the most effective air purification plant on NASA’s list! This little plant from Southern Mexico does require more frequent watering than everything else here.
Sansevieria javanica / Snake Plant comes from Africa, Madagascar, India or Indonesia. This is one of the smallest indoor plants, grows to only 6″-8″ tall. It sends out runners, which can be rooted easily. The thick leaves store water, which means if you forget, it is quite forgiving!
Chlorophytum comosum / Spider Plant is an easy to grow house plant great for brightening up our homes with the beautiful variegated foliage. Such a delicate looking plant is surprisingly kill-proof. It carries plantlets on the arching flower stems, which can be planted to create a new plant!
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Best hanging houseplants
Epipremnum aureum / Pathos, and Asplenium bulbiferum / Mother Fern are all great as hanging plants indoors. Picture the jungles of Jurassic Park where vines coming down from the sky, they are most likely Epipremnums! Some of the easiest indoor plants to grow, the foliage has many color variations from bright green to silvery green.
Ferns remind us of lush forests and waterfalls. If you can’t find Mother fern, try Boston Fern, Maidenhair fern or Button Fern. They are easier to find and grow beautifully indoors. Like the Peace lily, most ferns prefer regular water and moist soil.
The Epipremnum aureum “Jade and Pearl” | Jade & Pearl Pathos vine has smaller leaves than the previous ones, and we have several, one of them is hanging on the wall-
Actually, as you see, we don’t mind our home being turned into Jurassic Park!
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Best air purifying indoor plants with colorful foliage.
Most of the air purifying indoor plants on our list prefer shade, but Tradescantia pallida / Purple Heart plant can do well in both shade and sun! It turns purple in the sun, and turns green in the shade! Cuttings can root very easily in water.
Maranta leuconeura / Prayer Plant brings a little piece of Brazil rainforest into your home! This plant is magical: due to light-sensitive pigments on each leaf, it curls together at night like hands closed in prayer, thus the name “Prayer Plant”. Inventors out there, must have.
Tradescantia zebrina | Wandering Jew is native to Central America. This air purifying indoor plant is absolutely stunning with silver metallic stripes on one side of the leaves and deep purple on the other. I love to put it where it catches the soft light in the morning.
Beautiful air purifying indoor plants for boho and tropical jungle style
Is it a leaf? Is it a flower? Most of us have seen Anthurium andraeanum / Flamingo Lily with super bright red flowers which almost look unreal, perfect for bohemian jungle style!
If the name has “deliciosa” there’s probably something delicious here, right? Monstera deliciosa is a super popular house plant, and the delicious fruit tastes like pineapple! It is very easy to grow. Give it plenty of room because the plant can get quite big.
Talking about “Pineapple”, Bromeliads are in the Pineapples family. With stunning flowers that last for weeks or even months, these showy plants don’t need too much water. Once the flower starts to fade, it can be removed so the plant focuses its energy on producing pups.
Helpful tips on how to grow healthy indoor plants
1. Put your indoor plants in the brightest place possible
But keep them out of direct sun, especially mid day sun, to avoid leaf damage. This is THE most important step to healthy house plants!
2. How often to water indoor plants?
Once a week, place each plant in a saucer, water until there is a little bit of water coming out of the bottom of the pot, let sit and absorb for a few hours. Empty the saucer after, to prevent root rot.
3. How often to fertilize house plants?
During spring and summer growing season, feed your house plants with a soluble fertilizer or compost tea diluted to 1/2 strength every week or two. Or mix some Slow Release All Purpose Fertilizer into the top inch of the soil.
Most of these air purifying indoor plants come from tropical rain forest, so give them a nice “rain” once a week or 2 by bringing them outside and washing off some dust with room temperature water.
Even the tough plants don’t mind some extra love! When you do give them a little more attention, they will smile at you with their happy glow!
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Happy growing!
Great information and happy to say I have almost all of these in my home! Just LOVE my plants and gardens .
Every time I click on a fid to go to a link, it takes me to something not related to the title of the link.
For instance, this morning, the link title was do this with coffee grinds and cardboard and it took me to the most easy housplants to grow and which provide clean air. not even related……very frustrating!
hi Paula! we tested the links just now, they all went to the correct article. maybe the email got some kind of glitch via bell.net?
Such a helpful list! Just what I am looking for to add more houseplants!
This is such a helpful article. The only thing I’d suggest is updating the description and picture of the snake plant.
My absolute favorite indoor(air quality) plant is the ZZ plant. Tolerates low light, infrequent watering and naturally shiny leaves.
hi shanna, i love zz plants too, i should add them to the list! 🙂
A very informative article you have shared and I like the most in indoor plants is Peace lily. Peace lilies make excellent houseplants for the home or office. These lovely plants not only brighten up a living space but are also excellent at cleaning the air of the room they are in. One of the most common mistakes in the care of peace lilies is overwatering. Peace lilies are far more tolerant of underwatering than overwatering, which is one of the most common reasons for a peace lily to die.
thank you so much for sharing your tips, Urwashee! =)
These are all so beautiful!!
I Liked your creative ideas
Love the article and glad to see one about some of my favorite plants. Not trying to be picky here but the Epipremnum are Pothos, could cause some confusion if you are looking for them by name. I have grown many of these plants, and killed a few during moves, but these are all very easy to care for. I even got a Prayer Plant to bloom one time! It had sweet smelling little white flowers. That one lived in a North window with minimal light in a room that was usually a little cool.
thank you ruth for the great suggestion! =) you have a much greener thumb than me- i have even killed air plants!
nice article, thanks! just wanted to highlight that unlike the last sentence of the article may show, some of these plants are highly poisonous to bunnies!
thank you roos! i shall update that so no bunnies are harmed! =) xo
Thanks for this awesome post. I too have brown thumbs but this way seems easy enough to start me out.
I love all these plants! So pretty and perfect for indoors!
I have a Christmas cactus that I have kept alive for years now. I love it so much and it brings me so much joy when it blooms during the holidays. Great to know there are more plants out there that are kill proof!
These are all so beautiful!! I have no green thumb at all but I want indoor plants, this is very helpful!
i’ll have to give more of these plants a try… but i do kill even plants that they say are impossible to kill. i blame the harsh las vegas climates! i think my plants grew fine on their own with the humidity of atlanta when we lived there.
the humid climates are easier for sure! i have killed plenty of plants too. =)
I’ve always wanted to have succulents around my house! I’ve never thought of plants for air purification!
i just learned that as well! =)
I am about to move into a place of my own and was on the hunt for some indooor plants! This is perfect! I will definitely be referring to this in the near future. Thanks.
good luck with your new home jordan!! =)
Oh I love this post! Definitely bookmarking it for future reference! I have a couple of Sansevieria javanica already in my home but it’s great to know the other indoor plants too! 🙂
Thanks for this. I need impossible to kill plants.
I just love indoor plants! Thanks for sharing this plenty of information!
This is a awesome post. I am such a plant killer 🙁 I wish I had a green thumb but all plants hate me it seems. I might have to give it a go again, this post is awesome!
This is a great list! I do have a peace lily that has lasted for 11 years! Talk about a green thumb 😉 and I have a few spider plants about our home. We have a large home with really bad sunlight due to the forest that surround us blocking those beautiful rays. It’s good to know that there are other plants that I can find to purify the air indoors 😀
wow you do have a green thumb!! all these will be so easy for ya! =)
I love all lilies. I really enjoy them, i might have to look into getting one inside the house. Do you know if they are okay around animals. That is my main concern. I love lilies and I have them outside since my cats are inside only, but I would love to see them all most all year long.
I’m so rubbish with looking after plants, I have the best intentions but I’m away from home a fair bit, so they always die 🙁 these are good suggestions though. We have no plants at home currently!
oh wow such beauty, i love indoor plants but for the life of me can never remember when i have one inside. At work we get orchids monthly and we have a guy who comes to care for them its super cute having orchids around the work
orchids are my next challenge, i love them, but keep killing them =(
I’ve always loved the look of ferns but I have a brown thumb and can never have a plant. Every plant I touch dies, even cactus.
i love indoor plants, especially during the winter. Brings a bit of springtime indoors.
This is so helpful, thank you! I want a green thumb but get overwhelmed. This is a perfect breakdown of inside plants. It’s already been pinned!