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Tobitatsu
Posted
Hello,

I have a few simple questions and would appreciate any help you fine people could provide me with.

I would like to know two things:

1. What is the average carbon dioxide intake of plants? What type of plant intakes the highest level of carbon dioxide?

2. What is the average oxygen output from plants? What type of plant outputs the highest level of oxygen?

Edit: Also, which plants "breath" the fastest?

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Tatsu.
 
Posts: 2 | Location: Rothesay | Registered: 02-02-07Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
DorianGreyed
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I seem to remember reading that spider plants "cleaned" the air best. That is also what was told by the Food Service Director of the restaurant chain I managed a unit for. (My question to her was prompted why UI hasd spider plants hanging by the window wall of my restaurant. That particular unit was called the Garden Room. I think I should have been able to figure out the answer on my own.)
 
Posts: 16565 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Alan24
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Hi DorianGreyed
Wow! what a question. If I remember the exchange of gases in plants takes place throught the Stomata. It would seem the more stomata a plant produces the greater volume of gases are exchanged. But its not that simple, for an individual plant you have to look at it's habitat and environment; for example altitude, latitude and pollutants (air and soil), there must be many more parameters to study before a useful figure can be arrived at.
Not much of an answer to your querry I know but it does illustrate just how complex your question is.
Alan24
 
Posts: 3 | Location: The Potteries - Stoke-on-Trent, UK | Registered: 01-25-07Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
babthrower
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Welcome, Totitatsu,
There used to be a practice in hospitals, based on the fact that plants emit oxygen during sunlight and carbon dioxide in the dark, that hospital staff would remove plants from wards at night, to conserve the oxygen in the patient's room.
Then someone calculated that the carbon dioxide emitted by the nurse's exhalations on entering the room to remove the plants was greater than the amount the plant would emit in eight hours. This took the workload off the staff!

Sorry I can't answer your question more precisely, but I guess the answer is, "not much".
 
Posts: 6249 | Location: British Columbia, Canada | Registered: 06-11-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Sherasi
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I thought that this was quite an interesting question so I thought I'd do a little research on it.

One answer I came up with was this:

quote:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/House-Plants-721/Plant-oxygen.htm

There is a misunderstanding about the idea that certain plants are better producers of oxygen or better air purifiers. Much of this misunderstanding has come from abbreviated reports or excerpts from some research studies done by a former NASA scientist.

The bottom line is that healthy plants that are growing vigorously and that are large and have lots of leaf surface area are best at producing oxygen and cleaning the air. Although there are minor differences from one species to another, the health and size and leaf surface of a particular plant are much more important factors than the plant species.

I recommend that you select plants based on the available light because proper light will affect plant health and growth rate more than any other factor. And a healthy plant is what you want. Match the plants light requirements with the light that you have available for it.

Please let me know if any of this is unclear or if you have any additional questions.

If this information has been helpful, please take the time to give me a rating and nomination.


Regards,
Will Creed, Interior Landscaper
Horticultural Help, NYC


Here is another response:

quote:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/aug97/867881691.Bt.q.html


Subject: What plant gives off the most oxygen per volume of plant?

(I am interested in knowing what plant is most "healthy for humans" in
terms of generating oxygen. Hopefully, it is not just a fuction of
growth rate but is based on the plants metabolism rate. Also, how
much oxygen is given off per volume of this plant compared to how much
oxygen the average person needs to live?)


Answer:
C4 plants will give off the most oxygen per volume of plant. In general,
a plant will generate one mole of oxygen per mole of carbon dioxide that is
taken up during photosynthesis. This ratio is a function of photosynthetic
rate and leaf structure and orientation. The former is dependent upon
light, temperature, and water status. Leaf structure, among other things,
refers to leaf thickness, chloroplast number and chloroplast orientation.
It is difficult to pinpoint a specific plant because photosynthetic rate
is adaptive to the plant's particular environment. Chloroplast number and
orientation are also adaptive. C4 plants are the most likely candidates for
higher oxygen generation because, in general, they are the most efficient
at carbon dioxide uptake and photosynthesis.

As you are probably aware, C4 plants include wheat, maize, and many
subtropical shrubs and low-lying plants within a semi-arid type of
environment.


Here is a site that discusses closed environments using plants for both oxygen production and psychological pleasure.

Anyway, there seems to be a consensus that plants need to be healthy, be in an environment optimum for THEIR needs for growth and health AND the larger the leaf and plant surface area, the better the oxygen production.
 
Posts: 9030 | Location: PA, USA | Registered: 06-05-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
DorianGreyed
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I disagree that there is a consensus. Sher's first reference basically says that, assuming the health of the plants are all the same, it is the large plants with a great deal of leaf surface that "are best at producing oxygen and cleaning the air." The quote also states that "there are minor differences from one species to another". But her second reference says that wheat and maize (corn to those of us in the US) are representative of those plants that "are the most likely candidates for higher oxygen generation". Wheat is not particularly leafy, and, while corn is more leafy than wheat, it really isn't what one would think of when thinking of leafy plants. Obviously, these two references do not agree.

Wheat



Maize (Corn)



(I admit that this photo makes it seem that corn is very leafy, but it must be taken in account that there are at least 30 individual plants in the picture, and that the bottom half of each plant is basically just a stalk.)

Edited to correct image size Roll Eyes

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Karrow,
 
Posts: 16565 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Sherasi
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well, I read quite a few sites that seemed to repeat the same thoughts which is why I used the word "Consensus". I didn't list all of the sites I read. My bad.
 
Posts: 9030 | Location: PA, USA | Registered: 06-05-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
babthrower
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It seems to me they do agree. Obviously since the green leaf is the photosynthesis 'factory' then plants that have lots of leaves 'per volume of plant' are efficient oxygen-producers. So 2000 pounds of wheat growing give off more oxygen than a one-ton tree that is mostly stem-and-roots. Even more efficient would be a mass of water plants that are mostly leaf.

But here's the problem. If people want to know which plant is 'healthiest' to have enclosed, the answer is probably neither, because during the night they absorb oxygen and give off carbon dioxide.

So you would need to have a massive planting of a green leafy material, which you move indoors in daytime into a sunny spot under glass, then shove it back outside at night. (cf. the 'nurse' example above.)

Probably the fuel used to operate the machine that shoves the plantation indoors and out would be more harmful than the stasis of keeping the plant indoors.

But there's not a net gain in oxygen, as I see it.

Actually I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that the reason spider plants are considered healthy is not because they create more oxygen, but because they metabolize (and tie up in their tissues) a common air pollutant - but I forget which one. Roll Eyes
 
Posts: 6249 | Location: British Columbia, Canada | Registered: 06-11-02Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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