Plants how much oxygen

When we breathe out, we release carbon dioxide into the air which is then used by the plants to make their food and the cycle starts all over again. This system is called the oxygen cycle. Hopefully you can see that plants and the process that makes oxygen is important for the plant, but also for humans and other animals as well!

What do you think would happen to the amount of oxygen available if we were to chop down all the trees? Do you think this would be good for humans and other animals? If you would like to see this process in action, here is a little experiment you can try at home! Carefully take a green leaf from a plant and put it in a glass of water, make sure the leaf is fully submerged in the water.

Leave the glass in the sun for an hour or so. Eucalyptus trees can be the plant that produces the most oxygen because they have high leaves mass, grow quickly and have a very long lifespan.

If we look at the highest oxygen producers compared to size, grass produces the most oxygen because a large area is dedicated to photosynthesis and it grows quickly, followed by moss. What we are seeing here play out is something really interesting, because it mimics the way humans built cities. Yes, grass and moss give more oxygen than a small sprout, but a tree contains hundreds of pounds of leaves and occupies much less space, because it grows tall.

Following the same rules, a skyscraper occupies as much space as 30 houses, but it grows tall so it holds as many people as a village. Trees are nature skyscrapers and they started growing taller and being more efficient way before we could even walk upright. Let that sink in. Hopefully, it also means people can make better choices and get the plant that most suits their needs. Skip to content. We're an affiliate Houseplantscorner is supported by its readers.

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Hey plant fans! I hope you are all doing great. So how much oxygen does a plant produce? In a hurry? If you don't have much time use the link below to quickly see my recommendations on Amazon.

You have a few in your house and they clean the air, but that actually means 2 things: They give more oxygen. They remove harmful pollutants. Table of Contents. But if we were to choose just one, which indoor plant produces the most oxygen? Check the latest price of my favorite Snake Plant from Amazon. There are 3 rules that the plant has to follow if you are looking for a high oxygen producing plants: Has a lot of leaves or high leaf volume compared to its other parts.

Grows fast. They also grow vertically without occupying much space, so what you have is essentially tall, oxygen-producing machines An argument to the contrary is that a big indoor tree will have more total leaves volume thus giving more oxygen.

Ferns Like the Boston Fern mentioned above, they have really high leaf volume. Ferns are known as the most efficient at removing formaldehyde from air. Check the latest price of my favorite Fern from Amazon. Areca palm. They grow big and tall and have big oxygen producing leaves. Check the latest price of my favorite Areca Palm from Amazon. Spider plant Spider plants are all leaves that have the advantage of growing so long they hang down. A number of websites suggest that plants produce a good quality of oxygen.

There is no such thing. Oxygen is oxygen. It is a simple molecule and the oxygen produced by plants is exactly the same as the one found in air. The science of oxygen use by humans is well understood ref 1. An adult uses about L of oxygen per day. The amount of oxygen that a plant produces is much more difficult to calculate because it depends on many variables. Plants produce oxygen as a byproduct of making sugars, which is their energy source.

Slow growing plants need much less sugar than fast growing plants, and therefore produce much less sugar and oxygen. Low levels of light affect photosynthesis and result in less oxygen production. Temperature, water levels and available nutrients also impact photosynthesis and in turn oxygen levels. Photosynthesis in a plant results in the plant getting carbon from the air and adding it to its body — leaves, stems and roots. Each molecule of CO2 absorbed, adds one atom of carbon to the weight of the plant and produces one molecule of O2.

We can therefore get an estimate of the amount of oxygen produced by weighing the plant. Photosynthesis converts CO2 to O2, but plants also respire. During respiration they convert sugar and oxygen into CO2 and water. This is the reverse of photosynthesis, and it happens in all cells, all of the time, day and night. Over time plants get bigger and heavier due to the carbon they accumulate. Therefore we know that the amount of CO2 produced from respiration is less than the CO2 used in photosynthesis — or else they could not grow.

Respiration reduces the net amount of oxygen plants produce, especially at night when there is no photosynthesis. Humans consume L oxygen per day ref 1. How much plant growth do we need to produce that amount of oxygen?

Plants produce 22 L for every g of growth ref 2. They would need to increase in weight by 3. Keep in mind that plants grow slowly. Adding 3. If you had enough plants in a room to use up all of the CO2 and convert it to oxygen, the oxygen levels would increase from This increase is difficult to detect and would have no effect on humans. Keep in mind that this increase is the maximum increase possible and assumes plants would use all the CO2 available.

In real life the increase is even less. Not really. They do add oxygen to the room, but in such small amounts that their contribution is negligible. People have a much larger effect on O2 and CO2 levels in a room than plants. If you want to live in a higher oxygen environment — get rid of the spouse and kids! The main factor contributing to good oxygen levels is the ventilation rate — the exchange of air with the outdoors.

Grow houseplants because you enjoy them — not because they will improve the air in your home. It is not true that plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. In fact the oxygen comes from water molecules, not the CO2. Photosynthesis is a very complex sequence of chemical reactions…. Do you have any insights about Plant specific chemicals for example terpenes or other compounds found in plants on wellbeing?

It may be a stretch but I heard that going for a walk in the woods is good because of the chemicals the trees release. I am quite sure 2 or 3 plants do not have the same effect as a forest. Does a forest actually affect us chemically — I am not convinced of that. I suspect it is more about being away from our regular lives.

What about air purifiers? Do you believe that they may help clean the air in a home? Any favorite ones? You Robert are the biggest party pooper I have ever come across.

Do your kids ever tell you that you take the fun out of everything? Well I still like your material. Not because of your no-nonsense attitude or pessimistic nature but because of your facts and figures. Outdoor air co2 concentrations sit around ppm meanwhile indoors that number can surpass a thousand. Even if the inside level is 1, ppm, it does not change the level of oxygen produced by plants by any significant amount because of the relative ratio of oxygen to CO2.

So in regards to oxygen theres no significant benefit. I had heard that they can help in other ways as well, such as humidity, is there any truth to that? They do add humidity to the air, but again it really depends on how many plants you have.

Go to a tropical greenhouse and the humidity drips off the walls. Thank you for your article. I was hoping my few indoor plants could improve the oxygen levels at home now that we have been hunkering down for days with closed windows because of this terrible air quality in Seattle.

Okay, I live in California where currently the air quality is labeled as very unhealthy due to more than fires burning around the state. There are ashes floating in the air outside. I have 7 kids and have been trying to do anything possible to increase the air quality in our home.

There is no outside for them at all…we are getting an air purifier as well. So, in my particular situation…. The Lung Institute said for one person about waist high plants per person would increase the oxygen level.

The article was intended for people with COPD. The The Lung Institute should know better, but it is a common myth. Do plants then increase CO2 levels just at a much lower rate than O2? After all they respire all the time but only photosynthesize at night. It was also said that this contributed to the large size of the fauna and flora around that time which tracks with your explanation on energy production.

So if an increase from 21 to 30 is enough to sustain dinosaurs is an increase from A small increase might be significant in geological time frames, over the whole planet, but we are talking hours in a home. Or maybe the amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere has increased since then, and where did it come from? The size the very big animals dinosaurs, pterosaurs in the Jurassic Period can only be explained by the Earth having a lower surface gravity than now.

I know my question is outside the scope of your article, but I thought I would ask. I have saltwater aquariums and it is my understanding that the level of CO2 and Oxygen in the room impact the ph level in the water. Any idea whether plants in the room would have enough of an impact on CO2 and oxygen to impact the ph level of the water in an aquarium? I thank you for your no-nonsense posts about houseplant air purification myths, but I have a question on this post.

One of the things I read online was that snake plants, using CAM photosynthesis, release oxygen at night and are thus a plant with a noticeable effect in bedrooms. Do you have any more info about how these sorts of plants would affect oxygen levels? The point is that humans produce so much more CO2 that plants will not have any significant effect, even with C4 chemistry.

O you are taking all the fun out of my houseplant collection. Now I have no excuse to go buy more houseplants. In MOST homes, but not all. You can always go and try to make your house the unique one, where plants make oxygen in sufficient amonuts for everybody. That is my dream. Do you see any downside in living in a greenhouse?

I was wondering how humanity ensures enough plants are left growing to ensure that oxygen levels in the air are sufficient, but after reading that 3. In other words, sufficient oxygen production is more-or-less a side-effect of growing sufficient food. True that mass have to 3. You are very mean!

Master bedroom: larger with large beds, and cloths, no sunlight and plants, B. Sleeping in A will cause headache, and it smelly. Midnight I have to wake and drink about 2 times, then pee once, cough and running nose. Wake up very tired. Feel very freshing and nice dreams. Wake up strong and fresh. They are much more amazing than the numbers you provided. They are beyond words. As I pointed out in the post, that 0.

The real number is much lower. But house plants remove toxins and pollutants from your indoor atmosphere — I read the research from NASA and their conclusions.

Unless they are making it up and sending plastic plants to ISS to keep the Astronauts happy…?