Do you want beautiful plants in your apartment but have difficulty keeping them alive? Underwatering, overwatering, and sunlight can greatly affect the appearance and lifespan of a houseplant. If you don’t have a green thumb, you can get low-maintenance plants that require minimal water or sun. Decorate your apartment with a bit of nature and purify your air by getting one of these five houseplants.
1. Snake plant
Snake plants are known for their ability to thrive in low sunlight. Coming in many varieties, snake plants often grow slender green leaves with yellow or gray highlights. They are common decorations in apartments and offices, but be careful – direct sunlight burns the leaves. Another quick way to kill this plant is to overwater it, though snake plants are easy to propagate (creating a new plant from cuttings, layering, or dividing the plant) in water.
Snake plants are more than just pretty decorations. They are often considered one of the best air-purifying plants. They can remove household toxins, carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, and nitrogen oxide from the air in your apartment.
2. Golden pothos
Another plant that requires a low amount of watering is the golden pothos plant (or devil’s ivy). These plants thrive in bright environments with indirect sunlight or low sunlight. The pothos plant can grow to be around 10 feet long or sometimes even longer.
Similarly to the snake plant, the pothos plant can easily propagate in water. According to NASA’s clean air study, pothos plants absorb pollutants such as carbon monoxide, benzene, toluene, and formaldehyde.
3. Dracaena
Dracaena, also known as the dragon tree, can grow up to 15 feet tall in indirect sunlight. Dracaena’s foliage can be completely green or include stripes of green, red, or yellow. Brighter color varieties do better in bright light.
During warmer weather, dracaenas can be watered once a week. Their temperature tolerance is high as well. They filter benzene, trichloroethylene, and xylene.
4. Lucky bamboo
Bring good luck to your apartment with a lucky bamboo plant. Lucky bamboo, a species of dracaena commonly mistaken for a bamboo plant, often grows into spirals and curls in front of a light source. Lucky bamboo requires indirect sunlight.
What’s unique about this plant is that it can grow in potting soil or with its stems submerged in one inch of water. Despite the low-maintenance of lucky bamboo plants, they require distilled or bottled water. Although this plant does not have toxin-removing qualities, it is believed that lucky bamboo cleanses an environment’s energy.
5. ZZ plant
ZZ, short for Zamioculcas zamiifolia, is a type of succulent known for living in low sunlight and water. Native to East Africa, the ZZ plant became a popular houseplant in the 1990s due to its high tolerance to heat and low water needs. ZZ plants can even live off of fluorescent bulbs as its only light source. ZZ plants absorb pollutants such as carbon dioxide, xylene, and toluene.
An easy houseplant can be great for sprucing up your apartment and decorating your space. Great in any corner or centerpiece, a low-maintenance houseplant won’t just beautify your apartment – it will purify it too.
