6 best plants for a healthy office

When you're at work, you need a mind-body tag team: a fragrant shrub to stimulate your brain and a leafy plant to scrub your office air (which can be five times more polluted than the air outside). Finding the right foliage for you depends on a number of factors, however, including the amount of sunlight in the room and the color of your thumb. Clear your head (and the air) with this guide from James Dillard, MD, an integrative medicine physician in New York City, and Bill Wolverton, PhD, the author of Plants: Why You Can't Live Without Them.

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Benefit: Cleans the air

Light: Direct

Care: Moderate

Thanks to its huge fronds (which can reach 6 feet in height and feature 60 leaflets), this palm is especially effective at filtering airborne particles.

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Benefit: Stimulates your brain

Light: Direct

Care: Easy

Sniffing mint can increase your alertness and enhance your memory, according to a study in the International Journal of Neuroscience. Bonus: It can also help suppress your appetite.

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Benefit: Cleans the air

Light: Indirect

Care: Easy

Tests at the University of Georgia show that English ivy is particularly efficient at absorbing volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, airborne pollutants spewed by computers and office machinery, which cause headaches and nausea.

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Benefit: Stimulates your brain

Light: Indirect

Care: Easy

Researchers at Ohio State University found that the scent of lemon improved people's moods and raised their levels of norepinephrine, a brain chemical linked to mood and behavior.

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Benefit: Cleans the air

Light: Indirect

Care: Easy

This hardy vine reduces indoor ozone, Penn State researchers found. Exposure to even low ozone levels, like those emitted by printers and copiers, can cause chest pain and throat irritation.

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Benefit: Stimulates your brain

Light: Direct

Care: Moderate

It's like a long-acting antidepressant. A gardenia can live for 25 years, and every time you smell its flowers, your emotional outlook improves, according to research from Rutgers.

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