Mar 2, 2018

Plant Benefits Infographics Available from NICH

Indoor plants where we live, learn, heal and work have far reaching positive effects on our well-being and indoor environment, according to a new report from the National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture (NICH).

This new series of four #PlantsDoThat Inside infographics focuses on the multitude of ways indoor plants affect where we live, where we work, where we heal and where we learn.

“Greening the great indoors is a way to help create sustainable indoor ecology and healthy minds and bodies,” says Charlie Hall, Ellison Chair, Texas A&M. The infographic series was developed from a scientific literature review evidence base developed by Hall and his students.

The series of four brightly colored infographics, designed by Jennifer Gray, AmericanHort and Horticultural Research Institute, is free. One infographic a week will be released beginning Feb. 26 and can be downloaded from NICH’s website www.consumerhort.org.

“We envision this series of infographics to be used as tools to promote the power of indoor plants,” says Debbie Hamrick, NICH Economic Committee chair. “We want to raise awareness of the positive benefits of plants in our everyday lives.”

Growers, retailers, teachers, extension agents and interiorscapers can use the infographics for promotional and educational materials and uploaded to social media.

According to scientific research from NASA and others, plants clean indoor air, stabilize carbon dioxide and create comfortable ambient air humidity. Plants also boost healing, happiness and productivity.

The #PlantsDoThat Inside infographic on Where We Live shows:

• Rooms with plants have fewer pollutants like VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
• Plants in our homes increase room humidity by 10 percent.
• Plants remove up to 90 percent of formaldehyde in a room.

“When plants are around, students are just smarter and pay more attention,” says Hall.

The benefits of consumer horticulture were spotlighted in the first NICH infographic titled “#PlantsDoThat, Horticulture: The Art, Science, & Business of Plants”. The infographic illustrated how consumer horticulture contributes $196 billion to the U.S. economy and creates more than 2 million jobs.