Best Plants to Improve Indoor Air Quality

Zamioculcas -- Zanzibar gem

Zamioculcas — Zanzibar gem

Zamioculcas, also known as the Zanzibar gem, is a genus of flowering plant in the family Araceae, containing the single species Zamioculcas zamiifolia. It is a tropical perennial plant native to eastern Africa, from southern Kenya to northeastern South Africa. Zamioculcas is grown as an ornamental plant, mainly for its attractive glossy foliage and easy care.

It is a herbaceous plant growing to 45–60 centimeters (17.7–23.6 in) tall, from a stout underground, succulent rhizome. It is normally evergreen, but becomes deciduous during drought, surviving drought due to the large potato-like rhizome that stores water until rainfall resumes.

The leaves are pinnate, 40–60 centimeters (15.7–23.6 in) long, with 6–8 pairs of leaflets 7–15 centimeters (2.8–5.9 in) long; they are smooth, shiny, and dark green. The stems of these pinnate leaves are thickened at the bottom.

The flowers are produced in a small bright yellow to brown or bronze spadix 5–7 centimeters (2.0–2.8 in) long, partly hidden among the leaf bases; flowering is from mid summer to early autumn.

Zamioculcas zamiifolia contains an unusually high water contents of leaves and petioles — up to 95% — and has an individual leaf longevity of at least six months, which may be the reason it can survive extremely well under interior low light levels for four months without water.

The plant has air purifying qualities for the indoor environment. A Study from Department of Plant and Environmental Science at the University of Copenhagen from 2014 shows the plant is able to remove volatile organic compounds in this order of effectiveness: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.

Zamioculcas zamiifolia is part of the family Araceae, which includes many poisonous genera, such as Philodendron, which contains calcium oxalate.

An initial toxicological experiment conducted by the University of Bergen in 2015 on extracts from Zamioculcas zamiifolia using brine shrimp as a lethality assay did not indicate lethality to the shrimp even at concentrations of extracts up to 1 mg/mL.