Plants placed indoors have a variety of benefits ranging from filtering the air, to providing shade and beautiful decorative elements.
Some plants are capable of repelling insects and can absorb sound or natural noise cancellation.
“Plants and trees have been used for years as traffic barriers and other sources of urban noise pollution,” says Gladys M-Curtis, plant scientist for Garden Safe, a pest control solutions company.
"Trees are planted along the highway to help reduce the amount of noise distributed in adjacent communities," he said.
In addition, research shows that vertical gardens attached to building exteriors also help insulate noise and reduce sound penetration.
Sound-absorbing plants also work indoors. M-Curtis notes that they can reduce noise in an open floor plan, whether it's your home or office.
To achieve this efficiently, he says, plants should be placed around the perimeter of the space, and larger planters should be used, as studies have shown that a combination of porous soil and plants provides the best sound-absorbing capacity.
That said, the amount of noise reduction is proportional to the number of plants. In other words, the more noise, the more plants you need to absorb the sound.
How sound-absorbing plants work
"Although plants do not have recognizable organs designed to receive sound vibrations, such as the eardrum in animals, biological evidence suggests that plants are highly sensitive organisms that generate and receive sound signals from the environment," said M-Curtis.
Specifically, he adds, plants interact with incoming sound waves (sound waves traveling towards something) in three different ways – deflection, refraction, and absorption – and produce noise cancellation from the environment.
"Plants can deflect incoming sound energy through the vibration of their flexible structure, thereby reducing the intensity of the incoming sound," said M-Curtis.
"Refraction is when sound waves come past the plant obliquely and appear with a change in direction and speed of propagation," he added.
And lastly, plants can absorb sound waves through leaves, branches, trunks, and bark of trees and convert sound energy into chemical energy for physiological processes.
So, not only do plants absorb sound for our benefit, but sound also benefits the plants themselves in many ways.
According to M-Curtis, sound stimulates plant growth, promotes seed germination, induces plant defense responses against pathogens, delays fruit maturity, increases stress tolerance, and increases photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into food.
While all plants have the ability to muffle noise, some types are more effective than others.
"The rate at which plants absorb sound correlates with plant density and size, leaf surface area, and leaf orientation, as well as plant species," said M-Curtis.
Here are 5 of the best sound-absorbing plants to place in your home, both indoors and outdoors.
1. Begonia rex
"Begonia rex is beautiful and dramatic can absorb up to 97 percent of the sound energy coming," said M-Curtis.
She adds that these plants make great additions to a shaded deck, patio garden, rooftop garden or balcony, and they can also be grown indoors.
2. Boston fern
This green plant, also known by the Latin name Nephrolepis exaltata, with a sword-shaped midrib and toothed leaf blade, can grow to a height of 90 cm.
As for its noise-canceling capabilities, the Boston fern can absorb up to 98 percent of the acoustic energy that occurs.
3. Baby tears
"Baby tears are perennials that propagate, form mats, and are evergreen grown for their ornamental foliage," says M-Curtis.
Despite its small leaf nature, it can absorb up to 90 percent of sound in the audible frequency range.
4. Ficus
"This is one of the key species, or a species that interacts strongly with other species, and has a large impact on their ecosystem compared to its abundance," said M-Curtis.
Ficuses can also be very large, reaching 4.5 to 9 meters for tree varieties and giving them the advantage of sound absorption.
5. Peace lily flower
Besides being great at reducing noise, M-Curtis said peace lily flowers are also known to remove indoor air pollutants.
Not to mention that this evergreen ornamental plant is very beautiful to look at, with elephant ear-shaped flowers and glossy dark green leaves. And, it gets bonus points for being relatively pest free.
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