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Welcome back. Any office is improved by having a few potted plants around. Sometimes people take it a bit far: many years ago, The Economist’s Eastern Europe correspondent cultivated something that resembled a small rainforest in his office. (The effect was made even stranger by the giant Estonian flag hung on the door.) Whenever he went on holiday, his office-mate would be left with strict instructions on how to care for all the vegetation.
Perhaps he was ahead of the curve. Plant-breeders have got in on the modern craze for wellness. As
this week’s column points out,
you can now buy house plants that can supposedly rid the air in your house of all the various vapours and fumes given off by the plastics, solvents, waxes, varnishes and flame retardants that lurk in modern houses.
Does it work? It does if, like NASA, you put a plant in a sealed Plexiglass chamber, spray in some formaldehyde, and leave it alone for several hours. The science is fascinating: the plants seem to possess enzymes that can break down various chemicals into nutrients which make their way to microbes that live in the soil.
Whether it will actually work in your flat is less clear. The sorts of potted plants popular in houses are those that are robust and resistant to neglect—not necessarily the same species that can filter the air. But plants are pretty, and will cheer a place up. And even though you can’t measure that with an air-quality meter, it still counts for something.
Do you have any insights into the secret life of plants? Email us here:
wellinformed@economist.com.
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