Cat Friendly Plants

To clean the air in my home, I wanted to buy plants. However, I share the house with two cats, who have a tendency to eat my plants.

What to do.

Which plants are best at cleaning the air? From NASA's list:

Back in the late ‘80s, NASA was looking for ways to detoxify the air in its space stations. So it conducted a study to determine the most effective plants for filtering the air of toxic agents and converting carbon dioxide to oxygen. In 1989, their results were published in a clean air study that provided a definitive list of the plants that are most effective at cleaning indoor air. The report also suggested having at least one plant per every hundred square feet of home or office space.

Here is that list:

Dwarf Date Palm *
Boston Fern *
Kimberley Queen Fern ?
Spider Plant *
Chinese Evergreen 
Bamboo Palm *
Weeping Fig
Devil's Ivy
Flamingo Lily
Lilyturf *
Broadleaf Lady Palm ?
Barberton Daisy *
Cornstalk Dracaena
English Ivy
Variegated Snake Plant
Red-Edged Dracaena
Peace Lily
Florist's Chrysanthemum

I checked the list of these plants against the list of toxic and non-toxic (to cats) plant list from the ASPCA. I crossed out those which were toxic and marked non-toxic plants with an asterix (*). Where I was uncertain about the toxicity, I marked those with a question mark (?).

So here is a short list with the best non-toxic cleaning plants and images to help you with your shopping:

Dwarf Date Palm *
Boston Fern *
Kimberley Queen Fern ?
Spider Plant *
Bamboo Palm *
Lilyturf *
Broadleaf Lady Palm ?
Barberton Daisy *

Happy cat friendly plant shopping!