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Research has shown that certain plants such as yarrow, mugwort and sunflowers can draw heavy metals and other contaminants from the soil in a process known as phytoremediation.

This, combined with so many people seriously getting into houseplants, makes it worth another look at how phytoremediation — the use of plants to remove pollutants — works, and which plants can improve the air quality in your home or office.

Still, Dr. Landmeyer estimates that probably less than 10 percent of Superfund sites in the country use phytoremediation as a stand-alone cleanup method.

“People were losing faith in phytoremediation because it got expensive to replace dead or sick trees,” said John Freeman, chief scientific officer at Intrinsyx.

Intrinsyx Environmental and Phytoremediation and Phytomining Consultants United have since applied the same method at more than 20 polluted groundwater sites across the country in Texas, Kentucky, New York and the Midwest.