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The Ecological Significance of Ornamental Plants in Enhancing Air and Soil Quality and Promoting Drought Resilience
Summary
Some common houseplants—like Dieffenbachia, spider plant, and pothos—are especially good at tolerating air pollution, soaking up harmful heavy metals from soil, and surviving with less water. This matters because adding these plants to your home or office could genuinely help filter dirty air and clean contaminated soil, offering a simple, low-cost way to create a healthier indoor environment while also being water-wise in drought-prone areas.
It was hard to select and apply an appropriate criterion for assisting the selection of the ornamental plant (O.P.) species in certain cases - species that are not the priority for environmental impacts (air and soil quality, drought resistance), which were the primary focus of this study. Despite the increasing attention focused on the ecological benefits of ornamental plants, few studies have evaluated the synergistic effects of ornamental plants (O.Ps.) on air pollution (A.P.) tolerance, heavy metal (H.M.) accumulation, and drought tolerance. 9 ornamental plants grown in the campus of Anbar, Iraq, were sampled. Biochemical parameters like relative water contents (R.W.C.), ascorbic acid content (A.A.C.), leaf extract pH, and aggregate chlorophyll concentration (A.C.C.) were analyzed to calculate values for the Air Pollution Tolerance Index (A.P.T.I.). To evaluate the potential of these plants for phytoremediation of H.M.-contaminated soils, plants were cultivated in plastic pots with two types of soil. Plant species and soils were initially and finally analyzed to determine the 5 H.Ms. concentrations through the atomic absorption spectrometer. In addition, these plants were subjected to four water regimes to assess their drought response and tolerance, with nine plant samples per treatment. After one month, different morphological indices were noted for each species with different treatments of water supply. Of the species studied, 8.7 (Dieffenbachia sp.), 8.4 (Chlorophytum comosum), and 7.4 (Epipremnum aureum) presented the highest A.P.T.I. values, differing significantly among species (p < 0.001). Moreover, the contents of H.Ms. in both soils were reduced during the plant growth, especially for Cd and Zn. For all species, the irrigation treatments (from 100 to 25% water) had a strong effect on the morphological indices. It is suggested that O.Ps. cannot only reduce the environmental hazards through A.P. reduction and heavy metal-contaminated soil remediation, but also fight against water deficit stress. Furthermore, the use of O.Ps. can contribute to dealing with environmental problems that are related to sustainability, and it is promising, efficient, and ecological.