Eco Friendly Philodendron (James B. Conant High School)

  The morpheme phile means "one that loves" and dendrite means "treelike structure". Mixing these two words together, you get the word philodendron, which is the name of a houseplant. As suggested by its name, it mimics a tree and helps filter the air by removing formaldehyde or methanal just like a tree. Formaldehyde (HCHO), also known as methanal, is a colorless gas with a distinct odor. This gas is very dangerous in all aspects of contact, for example if low levels of formaldehyde are breathed in it can cause watering and burning eyes. This gas also plays an important role in global warming because, ”HCHO is a primary emission product from biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion…” information provided by European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff. Thus making philodendrons an advocate in our battle against global warming.

  Philodendrons do not require as much light as trees and do not need as much tentative care unlike other houseplants making them more suitable plants that could be kept. One problem may apply to pet owners, people with small children, and other things that eat unknown objects is that these plants have a high self-defense system in nature in which they are mildly toxic when eaten in large amounts.

  There have been over 400 formally discovered species with many more to come. This shows that the philodendrons are very versatile and can adapt to many different climates with one exception being cold weather. According to NASA’s B.C. Wolverton, Ph.D, Anne Johnson, M.S., and Keith Bounds, M.S. in an experiment to determine formaldehyde removed from a sealed experimental chamber by houseplants for a 24-hour Exposure period the Elephant Ear Philodendron had a total plant surface area of 2,323 cm ² and removed a total of 9,989 microorganisms. In the chart below you can see the statistics of several different types of plants that were tested, but despite the philodendron not having the highest removal of formaldehyde this plant is very hardy and does not require as much pampering as plants such as the Banana, Mother-in-law’s Tongue, and English ivy. This makes philodendrons more convenient for the everyday hard worker. Of course, every once in a while it wouldn’t hurt show your global helper a little love and affection by taking care of it a bit. These plants were discovered around 1644, and have been trying to help us all this time so it’s about time we begin to pay attention to them.